The Crayon Fields - Animal Bells

I bought this record to prepare myself for a gig I never went to. But despite the disappointment of missing this such gig, at least I managed to get something positive out of the whole experience. For this debut effort from Melbourne group The Crayon Fields is a treat. I laughed when I put it into iTunes and the genre came up as “children’s music”, but when you think about it, it’s not too far from the truth. While it may be a patronising and generalised description, it accurately captures the accessibility, catchiness, simplicity and overall joyfulness of their music. The sound they create is one you’ll either warm to or gawk at. It is generally a refrained sound, slow and soft, with vocals sounding like little more than a whisper. But this intimate sound flourishes as the vocal harmonies kick in keyboards run wild. And I simply could not write this without the mentioning the fact that they incorporate glockenspiels, triangles, maracas, hand claps and pretty much every possible ‘happy’ noise you can think of. Again, you’ll either love it or hate it.

Helicopters – For some reason this song was quick to stand out for me. Perhaps it was it’s slightly faster pace and my intrinsic like for such music. I’m in no way saying it goes off or anything, rather it just settles into a slightly more urgent rhythm while maintaining the familiar cool, collected and child-friendly sound I’ve come to love.

Living So Well – This song had to fight hard to make it here, just pipping “Impossible Things” at the post. It emerged victorious primarily for it’s vocal harmonies. Being such an integral part of their sound, it would just be wrong not to show them to you