BANDS:

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80's New Wave/
Post-Punk/
College Bands
90's & Beyond
Virginia, North
Carolina, & DC

Mark Mandeville: Leaf Tornado
[Nobody's Favorite]

I have to start this one off by simply saying that this is a surprisingly good album another little gem brought to us by Nobodys Favorite Records. Mark Mandeville is a low-key, thought-provoking modern troubadour wanting nothing more than to create music. He has that earnest, modest voice that envelops the listener into his soft-spoken world. Like those that have come before him, he has a touch for creating warm, friendly, blanketing music though struck in a bit of a depressing key.

Marks voice wavers and strains like a more road-worn Conor Oberst (though the comparison ends thereabouts); its thin but quite endearing and full of passion. Occasionally and briefly, his voice will drop out of tune but then make perfect sense and regain its place among the sparse, picked guitar melodies. He has the sharpness and strangeness of Syd Barrett, yet embodies the modesty and restraint of Jeff Mangum. Working with waves and layers of tracks, mainly vocal, he creates beautifully awkward, entangled harmonies. Each track seems simple and is completely captivating. At no point on this nine-song, twenty-five minute journey through driving, loneliness and escape does the experience lull or lose the listeners interest.

Recorded onto a 4-track in what sounds like his bathroom, the album has that warm, comforting feel of an old cassette recorder. The album is a bit pained but completely heartfelt as if he was the only one meant to hear the album. The lyrics are honest, slightly abstruse and betray some of his innermost thoughts and wanderings. This is my second review for something off of Nobodys Favorite Records, and its the second thing Ive absolutely loved coming from this seven-record label. I think Im going to have to do a little more digging to find more stuff from this label. Its almost like a lower-fi Elephant 6.

Check out this record. Some standout tracks include Steering Wheel, Wishing and Whining, Driving to Maine and Stereo Rain though all nine tracks are exceptional.

This album can be purchased at the Mark Mandeville Official Website

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