Rating: 
If you’ve lived in Austin for any amount of time and paid any attention at all, I think it is safe to say you ought have heard of Quiet Company. You may not have listened to their entire discography, but I’m sure the name rings some sort of bell. If you don’t live in Austin, and haven’t heard of this band before…get on it! Time is-a-wastin’. You already have three full-length studio albums to catch up on, and now you have another: We Are All Where We Belong makes four full indie-rock albums to divulge your senses upon.
In comparison to those other albums, this most recent one seems to be the most hook laden. On the first track, “The Confessor,” you get the mellow vocals of Taylor Muse meandering in until the song is more than halfway over, in which some piano bounces up the rhythm and kicks it out of the intro-phase and straight into the jamming. For first song, it is a good indicator of what this album is going to be as well as a good cleansing start for the band. On the next song, “You Me & The Boatman,” keeps things kicking and I’m reminded vocally and musically of early Motion City Soundtrack, but perhaps that’s just me. There is a steady interest maintained.
Five songs in, you get to one of the tastiest jams on here, which also just happens to be the band’s single from this album, “Fear & Fallacy, Sitting in a Tree.” The beginning of the four-minute track is quiet, but some pounding drums help build up the song to the explosive, gang vocal finish, complete with crashing cymbals and even some horn work. “Are You a Mirror,” the song directly following, reminds me a lot of The Decemberists.’ You have the ever-present acoustic guitar and those musical breakdowns with more horns; it’s the kind of music that makes you smile because of the lushness of its sound. Before this song ends, you get the repeated words of the chorus layered over a beat that allows the song to fade to the next flawlessly.
All in all, these fifteen tracks, for the most part, are pretty darn good. You may need to give it a few listens before you’re able to navigate through the jungle of indie-rock to find your favorites, but this is not grueling task, as all of the songs are listenable as well as a testament to local pride. Keep on Keepin’ on Quiet Company.
[audio:https://austintownhall.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/fear-_-fallacy_-stitting-in-a-tree.mp3]
Download: Quiet Company – Fear & Fallacy, Sitting in a Tree [MP3]
As long as we’ve run this site, there’s been a Ram Vela in our lives. He’s been buds with RayRay forever, and his old band Whitman played countless ATH shows. But, he’s been quiet for a bit, focusing on other things. But, as of late he’s been working with his new band Ram Vela & the Easy Targets; he’s been in the studio with Taylor Muse from Austin’s Quiet Company. As of today, he’s got two pop rock nuggets ready to go for you; they’re heavy on riffs and hooks, two things you can always count on Ram to give you in his songwriting. I love the breakdown in “Garage Apt,” while “If I Fail” is more anthemic, built for crowd sing-a-longs. Ram and the band will be playing at Mohawk next Friday with Quiet Company.
