This is a remarkable, quietly powerful, and astoundingly beautiful album from an artist who now deserves to take his place among his influences.
What we end up with here is Angelo De Augustine’s most brazen step forward to date. Tomb sees him not buried, but bursting forth with flourishing atmospheres. By nature his music is still very soft-spoken – almost Elliott Smith-like in that regard – but this is no longer the crackly, static-bound lo-fi songwriter that gave us Spirals of Silence and Swim Inside The Moon.
Tomb is a record of heartbreak that never wallows, a reflection on loss that does not allow itself to become stuck in the past, and resolutely optimistic at its core. What we find here, on what is arguably the pinnacle of his output to date, is De Augustine achieving the beautiful balance between introspection and grandeur; straddling the place where pain and hope intersect.
While the title suggests De Augustine's third full-length album is full of sepulchral tones, Tomb has a lightness to it. De Augustine is immersed in love throughout, so while he's working through tough stuff, we are ultimately left with the feeling that De Augustine is growing stronger and that love will bloom again.
Overall there's a warmth lacking on last year's lo-fi Swim Inside The Moon ... Elsewhere, echoes of Bon Iver and label boss Sufjan Stevens suffuse "All Your Life," his rejection of suicide, while "Time's" whistled melody confirms his latent optimism.
Tomb is truly meant for everyone with a personal ax to grind. Retrospection rules.
Dreamy and heartaching, its appearance is actually deceptive ... A gorgeous record.
Rather than allowing grief or bitterness to well up and overwhelm him, he instead uses his music as a vehicle to not only cope, but to also find some sense of reconciliation. On that end, Tomb doesn’t compartmentalize any lingering sense of doubt or despair so much as it comes to terms with those feelings, giving De Augustine some much-needed perspective and the chance to embrace the brighter possibilities that lie ahead.
Despite being his most polished full-length to date, Tomb shows him at his most candid and introspective.
By adding cleaner production, synth and string flourishes alongside poppier and catchier refrains, De Augustine largely hits the mark on Tomb. With a few curveballs thrown throughout, the warm and comforting lull of Swim Inside the Moon is long gone, replaced by a fascinating record that updates his prior work without losing any of its intimacy.
More blood on the tracks might have upped the ante, but as it stands Tomb is still a gorgeous wallow, with producer Doveman's minimalist touches left to indicate cracks in the facade.
#100 FAVOURITE ALBUM OF THE 2010S
Now, I can understand if the similarities to Sufjan Stevens brings this album down, That's completely acceptable. I can not deny the similarities, and this is far from a perfect album. Very very, Very far. Some moments here feel unnecessary and a lot of the songwriting can feel uncomfortable at times, and the production choices like the drum on "I Could Be Wrong" can even ruin the actual beauty beneath it. But that aside, this album is great.
This ... read more
An album i actually missed in 2019. So glad, i decided to check it out. yes the element of Sufjan Stevens are there but for me Angelo has enough distinctive in sound and lyrics to separate himself from the god of folk, and sets his own sound of beautifully lush melodies and a nice soothing voice with lyrics which become more introspective the further down the record. Honestly, a great record and I wonder what he'll do next.
Track Review
Tomb 8.5/10
All to the Wind 8/10
You Needed Love, I ... read more
This fellow has a fantastic falsetto and some superb writing, that much is inarguable. But, as many others have said, his similarity to Sufjan is so similar that it’s genuinely distracting. I think I’ve listened to A Beginner’s Mind so many times that hearing just Angelo’s voice feels empty almost? Idk that’s not entirely fair to him but either way this is certainly not a bad album, just feels empty
a beautiful glimmering album from the falsetto icon, there is a consistent tone of deep lingering rumination throughout and it just numbs the nerves. "you needed love, i needed you" is one of my favorite songs ever
1 | Tomb 4:18 | 85 |
2 | All to the Wind 2:52 | 70 |
3 | You Needed Love, I Needed You 3:25 | 85 |
4 | I Could Be Wrong 4:09 | 80 |
5 | Tide 5:15 | 80 |
6 | Kaitlin 3:51 | |
7 | Time 3:56 | |
8 | Somewhere Far Away From Home 3:07 | |
9 | Wanderer 3:03 | |
10 | A Good Man's Light 4:26 | |
11 | Bird Has Flown 3:22 | |
12 | All Your Life 4:25 |
#26 | / | The Wild Honey Pie |