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Thursday, November 21, 2013

Swell Album: Mutual Benefit - Love's Crushing Diamond [experimental pop / baroque folk]

Before the initial limited release of Brooklyn-based Mutual Benefit's first proper full-length album Love's Crushing Diamond earlier this month via Soft Eyes Records, its twenty-five-year-old creative force, Ohio-raised Jordan Lee, spent a few years hopping around the U.S. with his musician friends popping out numerous EPs, splits, and singles while sharing their beautiful sounds with music lovers, one living room at a time. Since Lee managed to harness the warmth and coziness of those intimate DIY performances to turn out one of recent years' most heartfelt and wholesome indie records, people across the world have been lining up to be gently squeezed into that welcoming living room to enjoy their end of (the) Mutual Benefit. As so, the record is being re-released by Other Music Recording Co. on CD (December 3) and vinyl (January 7).

With Jordan Lee's fragile, but captivating voice as the centerpiece, the rest of the music, filled with natural field recordings, whispy vocal harmonies, melancholic string sections, and other beautifully layered instrumentation, effectively reflects the collectiveness of his live performances. Love's Crushing Diamond deserves all the praise in the world simply for how human and literally wonderful it sounds.

You can buy Mutual Benefit's Love's Crushing Diamond digitally or pre-order the physical album (CD or vinyl) via Other Music Recording Co.. Meanwhile, watch a live performance of the album's lead single "Advanced Falconry" and listen to two other standout tracks below.