Send "Carter Tanton " Ringtones to your Cell 
| Pitchfork |
 The work of Carter Tanton is relatively unknown outside of tight-knit indie circles, but there's already evidence to suggest he's going to be a lifer. In 2007 he released a record of bullish roots rock with Tulsa titled I Was Submerged, only for that band to disintegrate before their potential was fully realized. Tanton has subsequently worked with Marissa Nadler and Baltimore art punks Lower Dens, establishing himself as a guitarist with both bands. His presence in Lower Dens continues, but he has also found time to record Freeclouds, an all-over-the-map solo effort that tugs strongly on the aura of David Bowie's "Wild Eyed Boy From Freecloud" for inspiration. Tanton is more rooted in earthly matters than Bowie, lending much of this record an agrarian feel that meshes with surges of serrated energy, perfectly intersecting his work with Nadler and Lower Dens.Part of Tanton's appeal to other players surely comes from his studio skills. Freeclouds was mostly recorded at home, but you'd never know it. Tracks like "Murderous Joy" and "Saturday" may bear tinny drum sounds, but it sounds like an aesthetic choice rather than one forced upon him. Like a lot of people in his position, Tanton's biggest strength is as a composer and arranger rather than a lyricist. There's a mid-section on "Murderous Joy" where all the clutter drops away for a few seconds and an affected guitar sound sags and swoons, digging out a feeling of loss that reaches somewhere far more meaningful than his strained Wilco-lite vocals....full text |
| Pastemagazine |
| Freeclouds shows Carter Tanton exploring his sound on his debut solo album, but the varied approaches don’t stem from indecisiveness so much as from a wealth of ideas. Since his previous band Tulsa broke up, he’s worked as a songwriter and guitarist (most notably with Marissa Nadler, who shows up on a track here) and he’s joined Jana Hunter’s band Lower Dens. Now with his own release, he blasts out the sounds as if they’ve been held back for a few years. The flexibility within a somewhat consistent sonic aesthetic is admirable and, even if not fully realized, certainly promising. Despite the varied sounds, it’s the more immediate pop numbers that work the best. “Murderous Joy” opens the album with breezy country-rock. The track— recorded at home like most of the album—finds a relatively dense and textured sound that suits the album to come. Tanton finds a more aggressive hook with “Horrorscope,” the album’s most driving track. The noisy atmosphere of the song works against Tanton’s voice, but provides a nice background for the lead guitar to cut through. Many of the songs on Freeclouds build around strong melodies that could work as folk-rock recordings if left stripped down. At times, as on “Gauze of Song,” we get hints of My Morning Jacket. Tanton doesn’t leave his songs alone, often casting a certain amount of gauze over them (as at least one song title would suggest). The lo-fi production technique does help to cohere the album, but at times it works too much against the grain of the song itself. Rather than create complexity and intrigue, the extras simply distract from Tanton’s strong songwriting. “Horrorscope” finds the balance, but a slower track like “Saturday” needs more space in it....full text |
| Spin |
| Carter Tanton -- of the now-defunct Tulsa and still-thriving Lower Dens -- style-jumps so restlessly that his second solo disc sometimes feels like a multi-artist playlist rather than a one-man show. His keening tenor offers a through-line on an album that rushes from R.E.M.-indebted melancholy jangle ("Murderous Joy") to slinky beats ("Gauze of Song") to a Sparklehorse cover. He even dabbles, poorly, in dub reggae on "Pasture Sound." Otherwise, nothing here falls completely flat, but if Tanton would focus more on songs like the insistent, noisy "Horrorscope" -- or settle on any one thing, really -- Freeclouds could cohere. Instead, it's a blur....full text |
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