Get There (Minor Alps album)

Get There
Studio album by Minor Alps (band)
Juliana Hatfield
Matthew Caws
Released October 29, 2013
Recorded Hoboken, New Jersey
Genre Pop rock
Length 40:05
Label Barsuk Records

Get There is a studio album collaboration by American singer-songwriter Juliana Hatfield and Matthew Caws (lead singer of the band Nada Surf) under the band name Minor Alps. It was released on October 29, 2013 by Barsuk Records.

Background

Juliana Hatfield and Matthew Caws, friends and infrequent collaborators since the early 1990s—they met at some Nada Surf shows[1][2]—decided to form a band together and work on a project that is this resulting record.

The name of the band, Minor Alps, was inspired by Caws' description of Mont Ventoux, a mountain that stood near his parents' cottage in France, a cottage with no running water or electricity where Caws spent many summers as a youth. Though part of the Alps, Mont Ventoux stands without surrounding mountains and often isn't recognized as part of the range.[1][2][3] Matthew described it as a “minor alp” to his friend, photographer Autumn de Wilde, years ago, who immediately said “great band name, write that down.” So, as Matthew puts it, “in the tradition of Iron Butterfly or Led Zeppelin, band names that contain contradictions, we chose Minor Alps—humble mountains.”[3]

Hatfield said the moniker suits the band name: “Maybe the whole world doesn’t know who we are, but the people who do really appreciate us”[3]

Recording

Hatfield and Caws co-wrote the record and sung on all of the songs together. They also played all of the instruments with the exception of drums and programming, which were supplied by Parker Kindred (Joan As Police Woman, Antony and the Johnsons, second Jeff Buckley record) and Chris Egan (Say Hi To Your Mom, Computer Magic, Solange).[1] Kindred used a Roland TR-909 drum machine from the late 1980s which they tracked the music to, "kind of live electronic" per Hatfield.[4] The record was mostly recorded by Tom Beaujour, a childhood friend of Caws', in Hoboken, New Jersey.[2]

Hatfield and Caws wrote together "in brief but intense bursts at his studio in Brooklyn, at her place in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and at Caws’ current home in Cambridge, England."[3] Hatfield said, "We were just getting to know each other while we were trying to write songs together. When we first got together writing, I felt very vulnerable because I usually do it alone. It’s a delicate balance to go to that vulnerable place yet do it in front of another person. That was the challenge, but the more we did it, the more it felt natural.”[3]

On collaborating for the project, not all of the songwriting duties were fluid. Per Hatfield, "They were all a collaboration, but some songs were more of a contribution from one or the other of us and then the collaboration was more in the arrangements and the harmonies and things." But Hatfield qualified that, saying, “We’re so similar that even if he’s written something, it feels like it could have been written by me. That’s why it feels so natural to consider them all co-writes.”[5]

Cover album artwork

Photographer Tyler Coray[6] took the photograph on the cover of the record. Design and layout by Derek Vander Griend.[1][2][7]

Release

The record was released by Barsuk in the United States, Ye Olde Records in the United Kingdom/European Union, Stop Start Records in Australia, Only in Dreams in Japan, and Inker in Brazil.[8]

Reception

Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
Source Rating
Metacritic 81/100 [9]
Review scores
Source Rating
Allmusic [10]

The album was generally met with positive evaluations from critics. In Metacritic site it holds a score of 81 which means "Universal acclaim".[9] Allmusic granted the album 4 stars out of 5, noting it was "a collaboration in the best sense of the word, with the two musicians bringing out the best in one another, their individual strengths coming together in a set of smart, well-crafted performances."[10]

Rolling Stone characterized the music as "mostly reflective and intimate" with the two "harmonizing over fragile electronics and unobtrusive acoustic guitars."[11] NPR music writer and editor Stephen Thompson said that Hatfield and Caws "together they have a very light, agreeable touch that to me is incredibly appealing."[12]

BrooklynVegan described the record as "appealingly mellow pop, with arpeggiated guitars, gentle electronics, and the occasional melotron. Mostly, though, it's about Caws and Hatfield's voices which sound pretty great together."[13]

American Songwriter, while calling the project an "oddly named sympathetic collaboration," said that "each tune blending into the next with little for the listener to hang on to beyond the overall gauzy mood" was "somewhat bland and forgettable."[14]

Track listing

No. Title Length
1. "Buried Plans"   2:16
2. "I Don't Know What to Do With My Hands"   3:54
3. "Far from the Roses"   4:06
4. "If I Wanted Trouble"   3:51
5. "Maxon"   2:53
6. "Wish You Were Upstairs"   3:12
7. "Mixed Feelings"   2:23
8. "Radio Static"   3:31
9. "Lonely Low"   3:43
10. "Waiting for You"   5:10
11. "Away Again"   5:04

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Kane, Tyler (August 12, 2013). "Juliana Hatfield, Nada Surf's Matthew Caws Form Minor Alps". Paste Magazine. Retrieved 31 October 2013.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Cubarrubia, RJ (August 12, 2013). "Juliana Hatfield, Nada Surf's Matthew Caws Team Up in Minor Alps". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 31 October 2013.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 Hill, Michael. "WXPN Welcomes Minor Alps (Matthew Caws of Nada Surf and Juliana Hatfield)". World Cafe Live. Retrieved 31 October 2013.
  4. ↑ Levith, Will. "Minor Alps, Major Chops: Juliana Hatfield and Matthew Caws of Nada Surf Discuss Their New ‘Soft Goth’ Band". Diffuser.fm. Retrieved 2 November 2013.
  5. ↑ Howes, Cindy. "Juliana Hatfield on Minor Alps, new band with Matthew Caws" (Audio interview with Hatfield). 91.3 FM WYEP. Retrieved 31 October 2013.
  6. ↑ "minor alps - Tyler Coray". Tyler Matthew Coray. Retrieved 25 November 2013.
  7. ↑ "Minor Alps". The Creative Basement of Derek Vander Griend. Retrieved 25 November 2013.
  8. ↑ Caws, Matthew (August 12, 2013). "Introducing Minor Alps". NadaSurf.com. Retrieved 31 October 2013.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 Get There (Minor Alps album) at Metacritic Retrieved 1 November 2013.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Deming, Mark. "Review: Minor Alps". Allmusic. Retrieved 1 November 2013.
  11. ↑ Reed, Ryan (October 22, 2013). "Matthew Caws, Juliana Hatfield Debut New Band Minor Alps - Premiere". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 31 October 2013.
  12. ↑ Chakrabarti, Meghna (August 26, 2013). "Juliana Hatfield And Matthew Caws Unite As ‘Minor Alps’" (Audio interview). WBUR / NPR (Here and Now). Retrieved 31 October 2013.
  13. ↑ Pearls, Bill (August 12, 2013). "Juliana Hatfield & Nada Surf's Matthew Caws are Minor Alps, album and tour this fall (dates)". BrooklynVegan. Retrieved 31 October 2013.
  14. ↑ Horowitz, Hal (October 28, 2013). "Minor Alps: Get There". American Songwriter. Retrieved 31 October 2013.

External links