Autumn Days

Album Review

In the bio on his website, Gus Black states that "He likes animals, food, water, and most of all good music." While this may sound a bit vague on paper, you can catch what Black is hinting at by his 2006 release Autumn Days. After all, it often sounds like the perfect soundtrack to be listening to on your headphones while you go sight-seeing in the great outdoors. It's understandable to assume by the aforementioned description that the album is comprised of acoustic/folk tunes, and several of the standouts on Autumn Days certainly do fit this description — especially the tracks that open and close the album, "Don't Go Tellin' the Whole World" and the title track, respectively. However, the airiest and most open sounds on the album are when Black introduces rock to the proceedings, as evidenced by "Traffic and Sound" and "Helicopters," the latter of which sounds comparable to a Coldplay or Travis outtake. Despite keeping things basic, Black somehow manages to create tunes that are quite grand in scale. And because of that, Autumn Days is quite an achievement.