Review: The Secret Life Of Sofia – Seven Summits
“All of the stories on Seven Summits are at least partly true. Some are completely true, and were told to me firsthand. Some are more like historical fiction.” - Kyle Wilson
Obviously, it’s not possible to objectively quantify the quality of any piece of music. But if counting the number of times an album is able to cause chills in a particular listener is, in any way, a measure of the impression it’s capable of making, The Secret Life Of Sofia’s Seven Summits would rate quite well on that meter as far as we’re concerned. It’s an album composed of many layers and it’s the interactions and contrasts amongst and between these layers that adds a hefty dose of dramatic tension to each track and the collection as a whole.
Having followed the progress of the band for a number of years now, we’re well aware of the effort and time that was put into these recordings. So, given the fact that we know how much work has gone into them, what immediately struck us upon finally listening to this collection of songs was the seeming ease with which they seem to have been crafted, or — perhaps more accurately — the ease with which they seem to ultimately present themselves. Seven Summits is a densely layered album — some autoharp here, some wind instruments there, along with the occasional piano rolls and glockenspiel throughout, and lots of gorgeously multi-tracked choir-like vocals — that showcases a band that’s developed a sophistication for arrangement not present in your typical rock band. And this sophistication perhaps shows itself most through not being completely, in-your-face obvious. Sitting there with headphones on, dissecting every note and bit of instrumentation is, by no means, necessary to enjoy the album. But doing so will only reveal a further depth of songwriting, production, and musicianship to anyone who cares to listen for it.
Just as the title hints, Seven Summits is a collection of stories revolving largely around mountaineering: from the apparent tale of a doomed expedition of Colorado’s Capitol Peak in the opening track, “Fifty Fourteeners,” to the description of a “rescue at 20,000 feet” in the title track that ends the album. We asked singer Kyle Wilson whether the sequencing of the tracks was intended to give any sort of clear progression in terms of storytelling:
“The track-listing was mostly a musical decision, but I think intuitively we actually arranged the songs in a narratively sensible way.”
Not all songs on the album pertain directly to the mountaineering motifs, at least in a literal sense, but even those songs that do not still end up largely fitting, at least loosely, into the general thematic scheme — climbing toward goals and/or coming to decisions about whether these goals are the ones most worthy of pursuit.
“For example,” Wilson says, “I definitely wanted ‘Government Lakes’ to be near the front of the album, since its about this person who is climbing a professional ladder. He eventually sees no point in it, and is severely depressed by the competitive lifestyle he’s chosen. I kind of wanted to imply that he leaves his professional life in search of another, more valuable and rewarding life.”
We’re going to shamelessly steal a line from a recent review of The Naked Hearts by our friends at The Culture Of Me:
The Secret Life Of Sofia creates “a world wrought with wonder and melancholy. But not despair. These kids aren’t about despair.”
There is a permeating sense of impending loss throughout the sometimes vivid, sometimes impressionistic lyrics and music on this album. But, in the end, there seems to be a general sense of satisfaction in the songwriting with having lived, whether firsthand or vicariously, through the various ordeals described.
According to Wilson, “there is definitely a kind of resolution at the end of the album, where a character decides that his family, loved ones, and just living in general are more important to him than accomplishing the goal (in this case, climbing a mountain) he set out for. And, in the end, he is rescued both from near death and also from the mundane reality of his own life, ironically, by his own near death experience. The few tracks before the end — ‘Dead Trees,’ and ‘Evidence’ in particular — could be seen as being about the more abstract and existential questions that the character faces along the way to that ‘rescue,’ although to be honest they weren’t written with that in mind.”
Of course, while there are some rather clear themes running throughout the album and it’s possible to detect some sense of a narrative, whether intentionally constructed or not, this isn’t necessarily a concept album. As with any collection of well-crafted pieces, the whole is perhaps stronger because of the strengths of the individual parts. And each song here is more than capable of standing on its own. As Wilson himself explains, “generally, most of the songs are self-contained stories in and of themselves — like ‘Moose Collision’ or ‘Nanda Devi.’ But together they are all building blocks of this world that I wanted to create because I was totally fascinated and obsessed with it.”
Indeed, that obsession took preparation for this album beyond the purely musical, with Wilson, at one point, spending time training as a mountaineer and eventually scaling Mount Rainier in Washington State, a peak alluded to briefly in “Nanda Devi.” Doubtless, this sort of first-hand experience help the events described on the album come to life with an implied biographical feel that would not be present otherwise, even in those accounts that are not actually biographical.
Great albums are not composed of lyrics alone. They need music and instrumentation to match and The Secret Life Of Sofia supplies plenty, both in terms of quantity and quality. The musicianship employed in each and every track is quite impressive — thoughtful without ever feeling contrived and capable of switching gears from energetic and forceful to nearly hypnotic and meditative with ease. But it would be hard for any of the intricacies to achieve their full purpose without proper production, and the band has achieved that as well with much help from Fraser McCulloch who recorded, mixed, and — with the band — co-produced.
With many albums, there are tracks that immediately stand out on first listens — whether they be singles or not — and serve as touchstones for discovering the album as a whole. For whatever reason, they’re more accessible and may be the tracks that are gone back to more often. But there are certain albums where those tracks that may go less noticed at first — not because they’re of any lesser quality — eventually seem to come to life in unexpected ways as they become more familiar. Songs like “Fifty Fourteeners,” “Outside,” “Weathering, and “Moose Collision” will probably stand out for most on first listen, and for good reason — they’re great songs. A track like “Nanda Devi” is less conspicuous at first, but listen to its haunting tone enough and it can get to you in a big way. Then there’s a track like “Sheet Stealer!” that starts out almost dirge-like before eventually launching into what amounts to the Seven Summits version of a jazz funeral, with its triumphant sounding summation/celebration of a life cut short. This slightly ebullient tone intertwined with decidedly less joyous described circumstance is something that happens more than once on Seven Summits.
Here are two tracks from the album:
The album is now in a limited run of 500 fully mastered and pressed CDs with hand-printed and numbered artwork, available at the band’s shows, through their website, and at select stores (listed on the site). We suggest you get a copy as soon as you can.
They’ll be playing in New York tomorrow, in Brooklyn next week, and on the road toward the end of June. Here are details:
Friday, May 30th 2008
The Secret Life Of Sofia
@ The Delancey
168 Delancey Street
New York, NY
w/ husband&wife
Thursday, June 5th – Brooklyn, NY
@ Glasslands Gallery
w/ City Breathing
Friday, June 20th – Harrisonburg, VA
@ Clementine
w/ The Cinnamon Band
Saturday, June 21st – Washington, DC
@ Velvet Lounge
w/ Olivia Mancini and the Housemates, Cobra Collective, Bullet Parade
Sunday, June 22nd – Philadelphia, PA
@ M Room
w/ Adam and Dave’s Bloodline, New Motels and RunRunner
presented by http://bagofsongs.blogspot.com
Friday, June 27th – Bethlehem, PA
@ Banana Factory Arts Center
w/ Mostly Other People Do The Killing
