Sneak Peak: New Music From The Silent Years

The Silent Years certainly garnered their share of attention in 2006 and 2007 with their self-titled debut LP. Thanks in large part to the single, "Someone to Keep Us Warm", Spin named them Underground Artist of 2007 (whatever that means) and CMJ named them an artist to watch as well. Now the band is generously letting fans download the album for free - get it here.

With their sophomore album, The Globe, due out in August, The Silent Years are about to get even bigger. This latest effort is a cohesive collection of densely layered tracks produced by Chris Coady, who has worked with the likes of TV on the Radio, Grizzly Bear, and Blonde Redhead. The Globe is a thing of beauty, nearly perfect on so many levels. Hailing from Detroit, The Silent Years are no Rock City garage band, more likely honing their craft in the attic or on the roof. Their songs reach gloriously upward, and The Globe progresses in that direction with shades of a concept album. The lush compositions are themselves grand assertions, and Josh Epstein’s lyrics and vocals follow suit. The album title is the metaphor at play, a symbol of scale in each direction, and the songs shift naturally from the microscopic to the universal. As detailed over on Daytrotter, Epstein describes the premise of the new album:

“We were watching the film 'Powers of 10' which they used to show in middle school science classes. In the film, the camera starts out, framed on a couple having a picnic. Every 10 seconds, the field of view expands by a power of ten — the picnic becomes Chicago, Chicago becomes North America, and soon you’re seeing the Earth in the context of its solar system. This got us thinking about the similarities between mankind and all other components of the universe. An atom is to a cell, as a cell is to a man, as man is to the Earth, as the Earth is to the universe, etc.”

Here are a couple of standouts from the upcoming release:

"On Our Way Home"

"Open Up Our Eyes"

You can pre-order The Globe on Amazon.

Hear more and make friends @ www.myspace.com/thesilentyears.

-J2