THE WILLOW
THE BUILDER
AND
M
ALBU EW
REVI
STORY BY: KELLEY
BLIGH
PHOTO COURTESY OF: THE WILLOW AND THE BUILDER
WHATEVER YOU’RE ENVISIONING WHEN YOU HEAR THE
WILLOW & THE BUILDER, YOU’RE PROBABLY RIGHT...
hatever you’re envisioning when you hear “The
Willow & The Builder,” you’re probably right. So if you
haven’t heard their music yet and are conjuring up
thoughts of songs about nature and people, trees and
sorrow, willow and builders, then they’re exactly what
you’re imagining. But way better. The two members of
this delightful little band, Richard Miron and Adrian
Simon (both on vocals, guitar, and piano, and Simon
on drums) create a folk-pop sound on their debut selftitled album with such added instruments as trumpet,
oboe, viola, violin, flute, and trombone. Approaching
the anniversary of its original release, The Willow & The
Builder is still just as much of a treat as it was when it first
came out in October of 2011.
The eight-song album is full of beautifully crafted lyrics
that don’t feel crafted at all, but are completely pure
and organic, as if the song could be nothing else than
what it is.
The album opens with an upbeat folk song and the
precious idea of having tea in a treehouse. Though
“Teahouse Treehouse” is filled with images of beanbag
chairs, playing cards, jelly beans, and candles, it is about
much more—like finding the person you were meant to
share your teahouse treehouse with. Listening to the
folksy guitar, harmonizing voices, and clap-filled chorus
will force your foot to tap along, and undoubtedly, a
smile will spread across your face.
And while the rest of the album is just as charmingly
sentimental, most of the songs deal with losing and
letting love go, rather than finding it. “Oh Willow! (Why
Wallow?)” is once again whimsical, complete with
whistling, dance-along music, “dancing at the bottom of
the sea” and “humble bumble bees,” but takes a sad
turn when the man awakens from his pleasant dreaming.
He sings to the willow a song of mourning for his broken
heart and lost good memories, dividing the song into
two distinct moods and making it quite bittersweet.
It all ends in a lovely climax and conclusion to the
album with “Cut It Down,” a soft lament about the
fleeting nature of love turning into a swelling crescendo
of strings and woodwinds and ending with a peaceful
piano decrescendo. With silky, yet brutally honest and
totally relatable lyrics like, “We love, we love to build it
up. We cry until we’ve had enough. We let love grow
and cut it down again,” the song (along with the rest of
the album) will become an addictive listen.
The album is a peaceful, reflective 28 minutes you
can spend being as nostalgic and contentedly sorrowful
as the writers themselves. Long story short, The Willow
& The Builder is an album born out of the title, the group,
and the need to tell the stories it does.
If you haven’t listened to it yet, go do so. Now.
The same contradicting feelings are in “A Mansion
Man” and “A Vast Emptiness,” and if you’ve ever read
The Giving Tree, the storyline of the latter may feel
familiar. Its pointed storytelling and sorrowful oboe’s
punctuation will leave you contemplating the true
meanings of love, friendship, and freedom.
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