Get Your Music on Amazon!
Get Your Music - and everything else - on Amazon! All purchases made on Amazon through this link earn a commission for Jesusfreakhideout.com!

JFH Music Review


Anchor & Braille, The Quiet Life
CLICK COVER TO ENLARGE

Anchor & Braille
The Quiet Life



Artist Info: Discography
Album length: 10 tracks: 41 minutes, 53 seconds
Street Date: July 31, 2012


Side projects such as FM Static, The Almost, The Brothers Martin, The Drawing Room, Neon Horse, and many more in between have all had their day in Tooth & Nail Records' proverbial sun with varying degrees of longevity. But the one thing they all share is having ties to other successful artists on T&N's docket. No doubt one of the most popular and practiced bands in T&N's history, Anberlin amicably parted ways with the label in late 2007, but with an impressive tenure comes lasting future providence. Anberlin's vocalist Stephen Christian began the project Anchor & Braille years ago, but for his second album, T&N gladly took him on their roster, but The Quiet Life proves its worth well beyond its marketability.

The central theme of The Quiet Life is living vibrantly in the moment. Unlike the bleak, sometimes bittersweet, musings of 2009's Felt, this go-round feels far more hopeful and optimistic without opting for unrealistic naivety. Even when it's not in sight, joy is the destination. Look no further for a sanguine outlook yearning for something more with lines such as "Life is beautiful, open your eyes…/it's not somewhere out there, it's there by your side/it's here and today, it's there in your smile" ("Knew Then Know Now") and "Is it just me or is life passing us by?/We breathe and we eat then we sleep then we drink and we die/If not now then, if not now when?" ("If Not Now When"). But even outside more positive themes, the musical landscape this time is more upbeat and makes better use of interesting percussion techniques (akin to Felt's "Like Steps in a Dance"); the lead single "Goes Without Saying" is ushered in with an electronic timed drum beat, and other tracks such as "In With the New" and "Kodachrome" follow this level of buoyant composition, and it adds more layers to A&B's alternative-painted texture. But just in case listeners get concerned with low supply of ballads on The Quiet Life, A&B sticks "Hymn For Her," "Everybody Here Wants You," and "Before I Start Dreaming" at the album's end, and they prove to be a trio worth savoring.

The mere extra drums featured around The Quiet Life could be deceptive, but the Anchor & Braille that listeners know from Felt hasn't completely vanished, but has only evolved. Christian takes every opportunity to showcase his falsetto abilities when they shine best, and the trademark stripped-down approach in its many dimensions hasn't gone anywhere. If anything, the production value has improved, but at the same time, the approach is still attractively rough around the edges; it's a refined, but not too refined, effort of almost purely acoustic instrumentation. Another improvement comes with the more purposeful setlist construction. While Felt was surprisingly strong for an album of songs written over a long period of time, The Quiet Life features a better organized tracklisting with songs all written with the end product in mind, and the album is only greater for it.

Based solely on Anchor & Braille's track record, Tooth & Nail's signing of Stephen Christian's project makes absolute sense; the fanbase is there and ready, and A&B's sound fits in with the roster with uniqueness only to its benefit. While Felt was undoubtedly a labor of love spanning several years with plenty of gems along its course, Christian has pieced together his strongest and most cohesive solo work yet with The Quiet Life, an ode to a purposeful existence and an accomplished musical philosophy to match. With Anberlin's next full-length record still to come later this year, Anchor & Braille's The Quiet Life serves in the meantime as one of finest singer-songwriter efforts this year, one in which Tooth & Nail should take pride and joy.

- Review date: 7/30/12, written by Roger Gelwicks of Jesusfreakhideout.com



(JFH Sponsor Spot)

Check out JFH's Lloyd in his first-ever childrens book!

 

. Record Label: Tooth & Nail Records
. Album length: 10 tracks: 41 minutes, 53 seconds
. Street Date: July 31, 2012
. Buy It: iTunes
. Buy It: Amazon Music (MP3)
. Buy It: Amazon.com

  1. Goes Without Saying (4:20)
  2. Knew Then Know Now (4:11)
  3. Find Me (4:04)
  4. In With the New (3:19)
  5. If Not Now, When (3:28)
  6. Kodachrome (3:13)
  7. Collapse (4:46)
  8. Hymn for Her (5:05)
  9. Everybody Here Wants You (5:15)
  10. Before I Start Dreaming (4:12)

 

Leave a Comment

 

 

go to main Album review page
go to Album review archive

 

 

                 
Check out JFH's Lloyd in his first-ever childrens book!

Search JFH



This Friday, July 25, 2025
ALBUMS
Anchor & Braille New Mexico [Equal Vision]
B. Tee Told You [Syntax]
Bride Scarecrow Messiah CD Re-Release [Girder]
KDNS After Eden [Syntax]
Olivia Lane Songs About Jesus (Deluxe Edition) [BEC]
Tasha Cobbs Leonard TASHA [Motown Gospel]
Kevi Morse Kingston We Winning [Syntax]
Pulpit Vomit Hospital Lens [Rottweiler]
Anthony & Tiffany Salerno Dance for Jesus - EP (independent)
Taylor & Co Worship Breakthrough - EP (independent)
Josh Wright LEAD (independent)

SINGLES
Sho Baraka Still Got Faith (ft. L3xdivine) - Single [Syntax]
Gracie Binion Easy To Please - Single [BEC]
C4 Crotona Mr. Gritty - Single [Syntax]
Andrew Gonoude Closer To You - Single (independent)
EJ Swavv & Nickwit2Ks Growth - Single [Syntax]
J.Solo All I Have (ft. Kaboose & MotionPlus) - Single [Syntax]
Kings Kaleidoscope + Kings Kaleidoscope Hymns Amazing Grace - Single [BEC]
Tasha Layton Life In Me - Single [BEC]
Lecrae Bless You (feat. Torey D'Shaun) - Single [Reach]
Hunter Plake Down to Earth - Single [BEC]
QEW JOYXFIX (ft. Stevie Rizo) - Single [Syntax]
Saints in Exile Bad Vibes - Single [Syntax]
Xander Sallows infinite - Single [DREAM]
Silent Reflection Left Me for Dead - Single [Syntax]
John Stratton The Body and the Blood - Single [Pure Mosaic Services]
Joel Vaughn Feel It - Single [DREAM]
Zauntee Jesus Down In Florida - Single [BEC]

VINYL
Bride Scarecrow Messiah Vinyl [Girder]

DVD
Jordan Smith The People's Hymnal DVD [Gaither]

This Saturday, July 26, 2025
SINGLES
Anthony & Tiffany Salerno What Would You Do? - Single (independent)

Next Friday, August 1, 2025
ALBUMS
Crash Rickshaw Big Sir - EP [Velvet Blue]
McKamey Legacy Holding to Truth [Horizon]
Ordained Thunder Roar [Girder]
V1 Worship Archives [DREAM Worship]

SINGLES
Sleeping At Last Believe - Single (independent)

VINYL
Disciple Attack! (Limited Run Vinyl) Vinyl [Girder]



For all release dates, click here!
 

Join honey and save on online purchases!
Get all of JFH's indie compilation now totally free!
Check out depositphotos for royalty free images