As we draw closer and closer to the inevitable cold and harsh weather that winter always brings, there shines a glimmer of warmth and brightness to keep our spirits high. Americana-folk band Mipso is making their way through our nation’s capital as they tour their newest album “Book Of Fools”.
The project is Mipso’s sixth studio album and it delivers on all fronts what fans have come to love and expect from the North Carolina quartet.
Throughout the album, tracks range from dreamy guitar lead ballads to songs that toe the line of 60’s surf rock and everything in between.
“Book Of Fools” begins with the semi-titular track “Starry Eyes / Book Of Fools”, in which the tone of the album is immediately set. While the song may begin soft and gentle, a time-shifting drum fill quickly leads the listener into an upbeat alt-rock section with distorted guitars and filtered vocals, before quickly returning to the dreamy origin of the track.
The album continues with such stand-out tracks as the ethereal piano number “East”, which allows instrumentation to remain simple and minimal to make way for the angelic vocal melodies to take center stage.
Songs such as “East” will truly shine in a live setting alongside a crowd of enthusiastic voices helping to elevate this tune into something larger than life.
A particularly emotional track can be found within “Broken Heart / Open Heart”. The track discusses ideas like the death of a loved one and feelings of intense loneliness and loss.
With such heart-wrenching lines as “the world seems full of strangers, every time you need a friend, why would you wake up tomorrow, if it’s just a day again?”. The track then ends by repeating the mantra “but a broken heart is an open heart”, as a reminder that great change can also lead to something new, exciting and beautiful.
Another impactful song from this project is “The Numbers”, a track that fuses influences from surf rock, post-punk and folk with its use of percussion textures throughout. The track seems to be a tongue-in-cheek jab at our market-obsessed culture, with lines such as “then the seers said, that the numbers said, we’re doing SO well”. An undeniably catchy track that once heard, tends to stick around for hours in your mind.
While “Book Of Fools” is an undeniably well-written album instrumentally, an aspect of Mipso that cannot be overstated is their use of lyrics and storytelling. Can you truly call yourself an Americana folk band unless you have a song like “Carolina Rolling By”? A country-inspired softly sung track whose beautiful instrumentation sets the scene for a story about a pill-popping trucker who drives through the beautiful North Carolina countryside.
What stands out about “Book Of Fools” as a whole, is that no matter what musical direction or genre a song may drift into, they all make sense and fit into a cohesive project.
Each and every track on the album serves as an individual reason to take the time to catch Mipso along their North American tour of “Book Of Fools”. They pass through Ottawa on November 9th at Red Bird Live, Mipso is an act that cannot be missed.