From a studio in his Austin, TX apartment, Saturn Expedition frontman and architect Patrick Shea took the heart-wrenching, angelic voice of Elliott Smith, set it to the sparse orchestrations of Low, and shot it alone into space with special guest pilot Nick Drake. Look Back plays like a soulful machine pulling itself apart at the seams in existential rumination. From the album's opening track, 'About it,' in which Shea finds himself running for comfort to the very source of his pain, to the final note of the closing track, 'Just the Same,' in which melancholic guitar and string melodies bleed together into a sustained balance, Shea reconciles unhappy times with an unsure future. Even in the bleak world of songs like 'Anyway,' though, Shea finds a glimmer of hope, however small, to pull him through to the next moment. By album's end, Shea seems to smile the frown of a Hemingway hero, and you have to smile with him. Spacious and dreamy, Look Back Fair Pilgrim will suck you into it's world and never let you go.
1) About It
2) Loosened Arms
3) Serenade
4) How I Talk
5) Anyway
6) More to Lose
7) How Could I Ever Know?
8) I Never Mind
9) Just the Same