A Place For Owls – how we dig in the earth

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The sophomore album from Denver emo band A Place For Owls is a great exploration from a group of musicians taking their time to get to the root of what makes us all human. The affectionately-titled how we dig in the earth is an album that was recorded over the course of one week at Coalesce Audio with producer Dave Wilton (A Boy & His Kite, Loud Harp), and finds the band showcasing what they are capable of creating when all the right parts click together into place. The band described their process as, ”We were digging deep into the arrangements, practicing songcraft as gardening: pressing dead seed gently into the soil, praying for rain.” By finding that other-worldly connection to music, while still continuing down the path of self-exploration, how we dig in the earth quickly becomes a defining moment for A Place For Owls.

On the vulnerable and cautious opener of “Go On,” guitarist/vocalist Ben Sooy confesses, “Go on and say, go on and say it all / You’re not okay, you’re not okay at all,” while the rest of his bandmates join in on the second half of the lyrics to bring forth their understanding that they are all in this together. On “Hourglass” the band grapples with mortality, all while still keeping an eye on the future as they share, “Still I will wait with you / For a promise we both can see / And i will build with you / A house where our kids can sleep / And a garden where we can breathe.” The opening songs feel similar to American Football meets Foxing & Manchester Orchestra, and offer a great reflective one-two punch in their delivery.

Lead single, “Broken Open Seed” leads the listener further into the forest as Sooy pours his heart out on the opening verse of, “A broken open seed, imagine me / Lying ‘neath the ground all covered in leaves / Still, there are wars we wage / Against everything we’ve made / When everything’s asleep.” It’s a great lyrical moment in A Place For Owls artistic journey and showcases the improvement they’ve made in this part of their music. Drummer Jesse Cowan has some standout moments on this single as well, and his unique fills put a little more emphasis behind each pointed lyric.

The short, but sweet, acoustic-based “Huston Lake” acts as a precursor to the great track of “Find Your Friends And Hold Them Close” as the band kicks into a new gear. The pulsating bass lines from Ryan Day perfectly complements the stylings of the three-headed guitar attack from Sooy, Daniel Perez and Nick Webber. how we dig in the earth showcases its depth in the second single of “A Tattoo of a Candle,” that is not only one of my favorite songs the band has written to date, but one of my favorite tracks to be released this year. The picturesque lyrics in the chorus of, “I’m smoking cigarettes with Daniel / A tattoo of a candle, a flicker and a fade / And everything has changed / I don’t need another reason, it’s just another season / The leaves will fall and fade, and everything’s the same,” before adding in some vocal harmonies to close out the song fit for autumn.

The back half of the record never loses its early momentum gained with songs like the rustic “Desmond Hume” and the quiet cautiousness of “Haunted” where Sooy’s warm vocals of, “I can’t remember who I was before / All the seeds that I planted, they aren’t there anymore” brings the listener back to the earlier lyrical material with a quick callback. The faint sound of a trumpet in between the verses is something that the band probably picked up from listening to American Football albums, and yet they make it feel like their own style on this record. The crescendo on this song should be studied for future emo bands to take note of when they want to capture that just right emotion.

The cool bass groove found on “When Your Eyes Close” features a memorable second verse that I connected with as Sooy croons, “When we were children / How we hid inside ourselves / But now we’re older / How the feeling overwhelms.” It’s a textbook encapsulation of how anxiety evolves over time as we grow older. The guitar tones remain vibrant on this track that shimmers past the darker-toned lyrics. “No Plans On Saturday” follows in the sequencing with some great, exploratory sounds added into the mix, while the harmonies in the second verse bring some additional weight and context to the lyrics.

The last single that led up to the release of how we dig in the earth, “What I Have To Say” is a stunning reminder of how quickly this band has evolved in their songwriting since their self-titled debut. The band feels like they’re gaining confidence at just the right moment, even if the vulnerability in their lyrics says otherwise. The sprawling closer of “Help Me Light The Right Ones In” ends with the haunting lyric of “Kiss my mouth and fill my cup / In that cabin like a kid / Help me let the right ones in,” that reminds us all of the importance of choosing the right company to live our lives with. A Place For Owls have avoided the sophomore slump in a big way, and while the band appears to be comfortable at the surface level, their music is meant for much more lofty situations.

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