Wind In Sails
Morning Light
(Equal Vision / Headphone Music)
Those familiar with Evan Pharmakis’ former group Vanna may be surprised to hear his new solo release under the banner of Wind In Sails. Dallas Green’s transition from Alexisonfire to City & Colour immediately comes to mind when listening to this album. The songs are excessively sweet and emotional acoustic sounds wrap comfortably around his near falsetto vocals. This is rainy day music, made for sitting back near the fireplace with a book in full relaxation mode.
This Wild Life are the main competition for Wind In Sails’ style of music right now, although the former have a much stronger pop element to their catchy sad songs. Pharmakis favours the mellow melodies, strummed slowly on acoustic guitar with minimal accompaniment. It’s difficult to tell how this would translate onstage (Green has always underwhelmed me live), but it makes for great headphone music, especially when feeling a little melancholy. There are a few deviations from the campfire folk, such as Lucid State, which is reminiscent of Further Seems Forever with its emo sweetness.
Wind In Sails have released a strong debut with Morning Light. It is pleasant acoustic songwriting at its best, with pretty vocals evoking the appropriate amount of emotion. (Dustin Blumhagen)
