Once We Were Trees

On their second album the band further developed their country rock sound. With the melodic ballads Hearts Mend and the folk sounding Old Manatee as well as the beautiful cover of Sade’s By Your Side, Beachwood Sparks added more mellowness to the production.

There are a couple of good up-tempo songs on the album, the happy You Take the Gold and the rocky Yer Selfish Ways (with guitar work from J. Mascis), but in general this album isn’t as poppy and playful as the first album. It holds together more as a whole, however, and with songs like The Hustler and the already mentioned By Your Side there is also more soul to it.

Great songs with wonderful melodies and lyrics. A classic album!

The vinyl version features the bonus track Quietly Be.

Format:
CD, Sup Pop (spcd0545)
LP, Sub Pop (splp0545)
CD, Rough Trade (rtradecd036)
LP, Rough Trade (rtradelp036)
CD, Houston Party Records (hpr050)
CD, Underground Liberation Force Records (ulf0005)

Release date:
2001-10-09 (Sub Pop releases)
2001-12-10 (Rough Trade releases)
??? (HPR release)
2002-01-14 (ULF Release)

Recording details:
Recorded at Bob’s Place, Levrett, MA, by Thom Manahan
Tracks 2,4 & 11-15 mixed by Beachwood Sparks and Thom Manaham
Tracks 1,3 & 6-10 mixed by Beachwood Sparks and Michael Deming,
Hartford, CT
Mastered by Mark Chalecki at Capitol Mastering, Hollywood, CA
Written and performed by Beachwood Sparks

Line up:
Chris Gunst
Brent Rademaker
Dave Scher
Aaron Sperske
Ben Knight (additional guitar on 7 & 10)
J. Mascis (additional guitar on 9 & 13)

Further information:
Once We Were Trees press release
Discogs entry
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