Angelo De Augustine

Tomb

Tomb is truly meant for everyone with a personal ax to grind. Retrospection rules.

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.

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.

This is a remarkable, quietly powerful, and astoundingly beautiful album from an artist who now deserves to take his place among his influences.

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.

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.

Despite being his most polished full-length to date, Tomb shows him at his most candid and introspective.