Jess Casebeer’s Top 10 Pacific Northwest Albums of 2015

4. Globelamp
The Orange Glow
Psychedelic Thrift Store Recordings

During my first listen through Globelamp’s latest folk odyssey The Orange Glow, I admit it took me a while to warm up to its off-putting world, but after the first couple tracks, which were very even, paced psychedelic acoustic tracks, I became more and more enveloped in its vivid, intoxicating musical world. It took a little while to get into it, but once I did, any cynicism I had towards the LP melted away along with my thoughts and stress as I found myself closing my eyes and fully taking in the bewitching psychedelic soundscape, abstract lyrics and storytelling Elizabeth Le Fey brings to the table all throughout this record.

iTunes categorized The Orange Glow as “Traditional Folk,” and frankly, whatever the Apple execs are taking that makes this album sound “traditional” or “conventional” to them, I’ll take two. Globelamp perfectly creates an ominous, masterful psychedelic atmosphere that any number of fuzzed-out post-Grizzly Bear bedroom folk bands wish they could conjure.

The syrupy, otherworldly sound of this album is sold even more by le Fay’s vocals, which have a unique cadence and inflection to them. The lyrics Liz puts forth remind me of those of Jeff Mangum, in that they can be extremely sad, beautiful, tragic, sometimes all three, all without making a shred of sense when you read into them.

Take the very cold, chilling ambiance surrounding this record, the endearing, goosebump-raising vocals, and an overall charm in its ravishing oddity, and you get what is easily fall-winter album of the year. The Orange Glow shouldn’t be slept on by anyone. Really. Go buy it. Now.