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Review: Splendid Magazine
Name: Violet
Label: Wine & Vinyl Records
Title: We Both Know It's Out There

Over the course of ten inertly different tracks, Violet establish themselves as a band that's almost defiantly difficult to categorize. Beginning with the opening "My Blue Son", with its haunting vocals and admittedly Nick Drake-influenced style, Violet hops energetically between genres. It works beautifully.

Mainly an acoustic album, We Both Know It's Out There is a blend of all that is great about simplicity and quietness. "If I Only Could" wanders down the road of a Celtic-style lullaby, while "Amber Falling" delivers blues a la the Cowboy Junkies. This is not to say that Violet don't take chances with straight-ahead rock; they do so on the rollicking "Undercurrent" with an aggressiveness that's hard to match.

Vocalist Meredith Minogue has a voice that is soft and lilting, yet not remotely weak. Her delivery is striking,similar in style to Emmylou Harris or Chrissie Hynde: powerful at the right moments, but never too soon. On the aforementioned "Undercurrent", Minogue could be an understudy for Hynde, delivering the same swaggering, womanly attitude when it's needed most.

We Both Know... was also blessed with loving production. Violet managed to snag Adam Lasus (Yo La Tengo, Helium) to put his special touch on the album, and as a result the sound is full and clear. Lasus seems to have worked with admirable restraint, allowing for beautiful production without sacrificing the music's intimate feel. In essence, that's what We Both Know... is: a personal, straightforward album.

While We Both Know It's Out There won't hit you in any specific way, it shows the band at their best. For an avid new music listener, it will provide many tracks for a variety of mix tapes -- a song for every mood, if you will.

-- Amy Leach

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