Andre Ethier
Under Grape Leaves
Telephone Explosion
This album is the musical equivalent of a hammock. Andre Ethier, acoustic guitar in tow (and back from a 10 year hiatus), couldn’t sound more laid back if he tried — one of the album’s handful of instrumental tracks is little more than a purring cat. On the tunes where Ethier steps to the fore, he assembles a tender treatise on aging and intimacy. He has said that he was writing in character for Under Grape Leaves, but a certain amount of self must be lurking in material that’s this penetrating.