44. Set Free – American Analog Set (2005)

(Taken from the SCQ Review:)

If The Golden Band displayed the band at their most ambient and if Promise of Love was their rock album, Set Free is certainly their break-up swan song. The only album dutifully recorded in studio (several, in fact), this final release before their indefinite hiatus has a Long and Winding Road feel – luckily without the schmaltz. ‘She’s Half’ features multi-tracked vocals which harmonize the lyrical melancholy to wonderful effect, while ‘The Green Green Grass’ is as rocking as the Texas quintet get, locking into a tight guitar riff and dousing it in crystal psychedelics. By the time ‘Fuck This… I’m Leaving’ opens into electric strumming to close the disc, we’re left with little doubt that this is American Analog Set’s most ear-catching collection, and the fact that the band drove thousands of miles to record bits and pieces in various studios makes Set Free’s cohesiveness all the more impressive.

Each Amanset album is insular and, because their sixth album does little to deter that self-consciously sensitive reputation, Set Free is a certainly a record I’d fight the flames to save while my apartment collapsed around me. It’s a worthy curtain-close for a band that never seemed to care whether anyone was listening; they were playing their songs, their way. I’m just happy I found them in time to say goodbye.

Know By Heart - American Analog Set (SCQ Spring 2008)

Know By Heart

American Analog Set
Tigerstyle Records.

SCQ Rating: 81%

Like the groundhog who finds no shadow, Know By Heart is the sound of Amanset coming out of their shell. They’ve slept off the muted organ drones of The Golden Band and woken up to the familiar but refreshed indie combo (keyboard/xylophone/bass/guitar/drums) that makes ‘Punk as Fuck’ one of the band’s all-time best songs. It’s a good stretch out of hibernating slumber, a warm step into the melting Spring, and a lead-in to the band’s most charming effort yet.

Not to say they’ve changed too much… Know by Heart still finds Andrew Kenny and band turning out the recognizable songcraft; difference is, the album incorporates the bolder indie-rock of their early days to the eloquence of their more introspective work, making this their most accomplished. ‘Million Young’ is as audacious as anything they’ve written, while ‘We’re Computerizing and We Just Don’t Need You Anymore’ is the most soothing; a layered slice of melancholy that closes the record in dreamy fashion. As always, a shortlist of well-suited instrumentals are scattered but complimented by a dose of the band’s infrequent love-songwriting on the title track or the sweet ‘Aaron & Maria’.

Part of what makes this album so celebration-worthy is that it’s the first AmAnSet record you can rationally share with friends or lovers. Unlike the solitary requirements of their last record, these twelve songs are looking for company and surely Know By Heart will earn the Texas quintet a larger fan-base.