Donate | NPR Shop | NPR Community | Login | Register
This review originally posted in January, 2008. It's being featured again to remember artist Aaron Stout, who died recently in a car accident.
April 22, 2009 - Aaron Stout is a singer-songwriter from Brooklyn, NY who makes ethereal, lo-fi psychedelic folk. His first full-length release is Queens Live In Caskets, a largely homemade album out on Monotreme Records. Stout says the name of the album is arbitrary, but hopefully conveys the spontaneous, stream of conscience nature of his work.
Over the span of three years, Stout traveled across the U.S while recording "in various rooms and people's basements." Queens Live In Caskets is a compilation of songs about Stout's former state of mind, which he describes as a "sad place." Because of its transient character, the record incorporates found sounds gathered along the way.
Stout describes "Fountain of Youth" as "a broken love song." It's an odd mix of Stout's soulful, gentle voice, delicate guitar, and Theremin, with found sounds. The songwriting follows the predominant theme of the record: "a sense of longing, longing for redemption, physically and spiritually."
"Fountain of Youth" has a more distinct organic instrumentation compared to other songs that experiment more with synths and electronic textures. It points to Stout's range of childhood music heroes: Michael Jackson, David Bowie and Hank Williams.
Stout promises another album release for 2008, his first studio effort, and plans to continue touring
Comments
Discussions for this story are now closed. Please see the Community FAQ for more information.