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With
Get Lost, I wanted to focus on piano-based songwriting and a more live band sound. This is what Mailbox is now and, even though some of these songs are several years old, I find them all very exciting. I'm pushing myself to write more about what I know whether directly or symbolically.
As always, I had a great team of players and writers to bounce ideas off and collaborate with. Greg Skillman's classic surrealism finds a new kind of home on the strangely-erotic "The Stampede of Mules," the epic "Micronesia" and the purely fantastic "Dolphin Forest." Long-time friends and co-conspirators Scott Stout, Chris Combs and Jeff Margolis contributed a lyric each. Jeff also joined in with Vermont bandmates Chris Johnston and Jay Ekis to keep the grooves lively and ever-changing. Sara Rabin enchants the "Dolphin Forest" with her sweet voice.
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Seven Days - Burlington, VT
John Pritchard
The assemblage of players this time around is impressive. Tracks such as the Joe Jackson-inspired "Disappear" and "Too Late" ... stand out for the accomplished musicianship of Rabin, bassist Jeff Margolis and guitarist Jay Ekis. Their synergy, anchored by Chris Johnson's percussion work, could dominate a room. Rabin's voice is wobbly and boyish, but he does not embrace that simplicity.
[Rabin] recorded and engineered the project at home with impressive results. In fact, home-recording connoisseurs should pick up the disc as an exemplar of the craft.
The closing portions of the record's lithe 10 tracks provide a welcome deviation from the front end's conventional piano-rock aesthetic. "Dolphin Forest," though lyrically psychedelic and theatrically awkward, is framed by a winsomely melodic vocal duet with Adam and Sara Rabin.
Get Lost is a worthy delivery from one of the region's boldly idiosyncratic songwriters.