Fold in the Wind

House Of Wolves’ debut full-length Fold In The Wind is awash in thick nostalgia and longing. Slowly plucked or strummed acoustic guitar, light piano flickers, minimal percussion, and auxiliary horns for texture form the instrumental backbone of all of the songs on Fold In The Wind. It’s mixed perfectly, with Villalobos’ voice in the center and the instrumentation forming a lush sonic circle around him. Production highlights include the subtle vocal harmonies in the chorus of “Follow Me”, the sway of “There She Goes” and the abandoned circus feel of the closing track “Flight”, which is complimented by its music-box melody. Combined with the often bittersweet lyrics, a lot of these instrumental flourishes procure some remarkably deep-seeded feelings of nostalgia.

On the sadly nostalgic opener “50’s”, singer Rey Villalobos’ cracked, reedy voice comes through clearly over the gentle guitar, percussion, and piano. With his heavenly, wispy vocals, he delivers some of the most bittersweet, depressing, and yet somehow romantic opening lines: “Kiss me like it’s the 50’s / Pull your hands from the ground / Kiss me like it’s your ending / Never place me far from your sound.” On the low-tempo piece “Ageless”, he desperately sings “The fallen is saved / I wanna make things right” before heading into the chorus. As listeners, we’re left yearning to discover the true inspirations for these songs and their deliberately vague and often mysterious lyrics. The feelings he expresses on Fold In The Wind – sometimes blatantly, in songs like the gorgeous “Jealous” – are all genuine, but he leaves many of the details up to the listener’s interpretation.