COLIN L. ORCHESTRA – Good God / Infinite Ease

Let’s get this straight. In “Colin L. Orchestra,” Colin is for Colin, L is for Langenus, and “Orchestra” isn’t an affectation — the CD sleeve lists a staggering 33 members wielding (among others) violins, guitars, oboe, dobro, flute, harmonica, organ, and drums. All three come together in a double album release composed of the 10 tracks of Good God and the six on Infinite Ease. If Good God were a party, it would be the kind where, at 3 am, you find yourself sitting paralyzed on the couch staring at someone’s jiggling kneecap and wondering why your head hurts so bad. There’s always something going on every second, usually Langenus wailing over wiggling horns over guitars ripping the shit out of the air. It’s simply exhausting! Don’t get me wrong, though,  this is not particularly fast or heavy. There is a lot of decent guitar work and nice head-bobbing country and folk sounds. Infinite Ease is a happy-go-lucky blend of sweet guitars which tend to go on sun-filled dilly-dallies. On “You Need Sleep”, the Orchestra plays for longer than feels natural, leaving the listener to either a) enjoy the sounds of reverberating violins and folksy golden guitars or b) wonder for the next 4 minutes if the vocals are going to come back. …they don’t. (Northern Spy, www.northern-spy.com) Adrienne Yeung

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