Husky - Forever So (2012) [Hi-Res]

Tracklist

01. Tidal Wave
02. Fake Moustache
03. History's Door
04. The Woods
05. Hunter
06. Dark Sea
07. Forever So
08. Animals & Freaks
09. Instrumental
10. Hundred Dollar Suit
11. How Do You Feel
12. Don't Tell Your Mother
13. Farewell (in 3 Parts)

Someone named Josephine is haunting Forever So, the debut LP from Australian indie folk four-piece Husky. "Josephine, I don't love her anymore," frontman Husky Gawenda sings on "Don't Tell Your Mother"; later, on "Farewell (in 3 Parts)", he sings, "there was a lot we didn't say, wasn't there, Josephine?" The rest of their story is told in fits and starts throughout Forever So; there's the three weeks spent in the motel by the sea, an unforeseen overnighter in a bus stop, the river in the woods where Gawenda washed away his sins. These vivid scenes and impressionistic details make for a surprisingly lifelike portrait of a love gone south, even as it poses as many questions as it answers. You may never quite get every last detail out of Husky, but you'll certainly get the picture.

Husky's music plays much like Gawenda's lyrics: spare one moment, bursting with feeling the next. Pitched somewhere between the pristine, pocket-orchestral feel of early Sufjan and the intricate, ever-changing popcraft of the Shins, they're preternaturally confident for a young band, piling on when needs be but just as willing to pull back to almost nothing.

There are shades of Paul Simon and, again, Sufjan dancing around the edges of Gawenda's high, clear voice, and his penchant for full sentences and story-songs sometimes brings to mind early Ben Gibbard. Although there's a slight storyteller's detachment to some of the less blatantly personal affairs here, when he's speaking from the heart, you'll know it. At first, Forever So almost seems too simplistic, just a couple of chords and some guy banging on about his ex. But once you've leaned into the record a few times and learned a little more about Josephine, what isn't said-and, consequently, what isn't played-becomes every bit as compelling as what is.

DOWNLOAD ALBUM [Hi-Res]