crayon fields animal bells

The Crayon Fields - Animal Bells

I bought this record to prepare myself for a gig I never went to. But

despite the disappointment of missing this such gig, at least I

managed to get something positive out of the whole experience. For

this debut effort from Melbourne group The Crayon Fields is a treat. I

laughed when I put it into iTunes and the genre came up as "children's

music", but when you think about it, it's not too far from the truth.

While it may be a patronising and generalised description, it

accurately captures the accessibility, catchiness, simplicity and

overall joyfulness of their music. The sound they create is one you'll

either warm to or gawk at. It is generally a refrained sound, slow and

soft, with vocals sounding like little more than a whisper. But this

intimate sound flourishes as the vocal harmonies kick in keyboards run

wild. And I simply could not write this without the mentioning the

fact that they incorporate glockenspiels, triangles, maracas, hand

claps and pretty much every possible `happy' noise you can think of.

Again, you'll either love it or hate it.

Helicopters - For some reason this song was quick to stand out for me.

Perhaps it was it's slightly faster pace and my intrinsic like for

such music. I'm in no way saying it goes off or anything, rather it

just settles into a slightly more urgent rhythm while maintaining the

familiar cool, collected and child-friendly sound I've come to love.

Living So Well - This song had to fight hard to make it here, just

pipping "Impossible Things" at the post. It emerged victorious

primarily for it's vocal harmonies. Being such an integral part of