PEASANT
ON THE GROUND
PAPER GARDEN RECORDS
WORDS: CHRISTOPHER THOMPSON

Gentle music like On the Ground is good with friends. You can catch up on days past outside each others' company with all the silences filled with soft smiles and heads bobbing. Peasant's music reflects the small and forgetful moments that nevertheless last with you as a meaningful whole, and this album reminds you of the silent times you spend with your closest friends. Damien DeRose, Peasant's central yarnspinner, tells down-home tales that are sweetened by story but don't lift you much past the point making your afternoon calm and enjoyable. The douche bags who hang around college campuses with guitars playing music that makes you want to punch only with they could rise above their sappy, inauthentic mess to match DeRose.

The acoustic pickings from song to song vary enough to retain your interest, with the lead-in tune painting the first swath of the rural hue that is re-coated across your ears for the rest of the album. Damien's voice resembles many pop voices of the past 10 years but is unique to subdued context that surrounds it. On “The Wind," you feel he could break out at any moment into a Shins-like burst of energy but he maintains a mellow mood with just the slightest bit of soul. A strong Elliot Smith influence runs through the mix, especially the track “Fine is Fine,” definitely an Either/Or era kinda jam. Resembling Smith in timbre and cadence, he paints the picture well but could never be mistaken for the trouble soul that Smith was. The music here is less subtly upsetting, but by the same token it also lacks some shades of depth that usually accompany more dynamic records. But that's just fine. DeRose isn't aiming for deep emotional statements. He skirts the divide between sentimentality and silence, and the invitation to join him is too pleasantly unassuming to resist.