NPR online has new Avett Brothers CD recorded in Asheville

Jason Sandford

Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.

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First single “Live and Die” has been playing on the radio for awhile, and now NPR offers an early review of the whole CD, and also streams all the tracks.

From the review:

The Avett Brothers‘ style of alternately frenetic and swoony, frequently bluegrass-infused folk-rock has penetrated the public consciousness to the point where Seth and Scott Avett appear to be on the brink of superstardom. Peers such as Mumford & Sons and The Lumineers have already broken through in a big way, and neither band packs the Avetts’ knack for wrapping catchy music around a poignant center. The North Carolina group’s 2009 breakthrough, I and Love and You, was a crowd-pleaser in part because it speaks to universal truths; it reaches for more than mere infectiousness or agreeability, and finds what it was looking for.

The Carpenter, out Sept. 11, continues on that journey, dispensing cheerily hook-filled anthems (the gorgeous single “Live and Die,” the charming kiss-off jam “I Never Knew You”) amid more introspective looks at mortality, devotion and a desire to “live the life I’m given” (to borrow a few words from the album-opening ballad “The Once and Future Carpenter”).

Read the rest and listen to the whole CD here: First listen: The Avett Brothers, “The Carpenter”

Tracklist:

The Once and Future Carpenter

Live and Die

Winter in My Heart

Pretty Girl from Michigan

I Never Knew You

February Seven

Through My Prayers

Down With Shine

A Father’s First Spring

Geraldine

Paul Newman vs. the Demons

Life