The Artisanals have recently released their second album ‘Zia‘ which is chock full of radio ready Americana dusted rock. Whilst there are nods to artists of the early 1970’s – and a bit of arena rock aspirations along the Midnight Oil vein – The Artisanals craft their own sound. The South Carolina four-piece have a winning blend of acoustic-driven rock, with vocals that want to be heard and lyrics which paint pictures of situations that could be going wrong but which might just work out. An underlying optimism, and in a genre that often emphasizes the bleak the odd colourful spray of optimism is no bad thing. Whisper it quietly so the cool kids don’t hear – but Life can be good.
Today’s track is ‘Heading Somewhere‘ which starts off with a sense of foreboding “this city’s built on a burial ground the water’s cursed” before drifting into desperation that things are all going wrong before finally finding some kind of consolation in escape “let’s make love in the car and then drive out into the desert.” That sounds like a plan.
