The Life and Times of Rosa Lee

Brooklyn’s The Library are a pop band consisting of guitars, piano, bass, drums, and male vocals with the occasional fiddle, banjo, or electronics thrown into the mix that transcends the simplicity of its lineup with graceful little songs, a supple gauzy tone, and a perfectly languorous pacing that harkens back foremost to the early 90’s softer side of the shoegaze phenomenon. Some reference points can be drawn to bands from that time like Slowdive, Chapterhouse, and Mazzy Star, but The Library also has a timeless pop quality that borrows and reinterprets from the mid-60’s Mersey Beat bands through early 70’s solo Neil Young and a somewhat particular melancholy kinship with Big Star’s 1974 Sister Lovers album and on through to the mid to late 80’s dreamy minimalist psych of Galaxy 500. While the influence of English bands is undoubtedly present, there is a muscular American rootsy quality underlying what is in essence a soft, mostly downbeat, loose and dreamy pop band. -J. Marlowe

This is the most soothing album I have heard in a while. The lead vocals are beautiful and the melody and arrangements are so catchy they stay in your head after one listen.

Two April's ago, I drank a rum punch at two in the morning with a few buddies, biked home over the bridge with the city behind me, empty and sleeping; Wilco was in my earphones, but it shoulda been The Library. Comprised of "some guys in Brooklyn", including Matt Long, Jason Caperton, and Jeremy Burnworth, among others, the unassuming vocals draw you into the elliptic lyrics and the catchy melodies serve the songs. The first track, “Wish I Knew”, is full of poetry and longing, with a great repeating riff in the background that keeps me coming back, wishing I too knew what she wanted when she screams. “Tomorrow Is Better” switches gears from meditation to a whatever-is-fine-with-me lacksidasical wandering. With its indolent rhythm and lyrics like: “Someday I wanna do important things, but tomorrow is better for me”, interwoven with a fantastic country-esque harmonica reminiscent of Neil Young, its hard not to smile. There are other bright spots of humor throughout the album, like in the title of the track “TomKat” or the whimsical banjo twang in “Banjo Song”. I’m already looking forward to seeing them play and watching where they go from here.