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We’ve been following the growing painlessness of Active Child<\/strong><\/a> for a while now.\u00a0 And despite the foreshadowing of great earlier songs such as I’m In Your Church at Night<\/strong><\/em> and When Your Love is Safe, <\/strong><\/em>leader\/singer\/harpist Pat Rossi (part of the ever-growing falsetto coterie) appears to have fully matured with their recently released first proper album, “You Are All I See<\/strong>,” on Vagrant Records<\/strong>.\u00a0 The album is more varied sonically and lyrically, and all for the better.<\/p>\n Rossi (former choir boy turned indie artiste) recently said this about the album: \u201cYou Are All I See<\/strong> is an attempt to build a bridge between the listener and I, in that, I wrote these songs for you as much as I did for me. And right now when you are listening to my voice, by yourself, it really is just you and I.\u201d\u00a0 Despite the grammar issues (yes, we are both Strunk and<\/strong><\/span> White), we laud Rossi’s move from the self-involved to the altruistic.\u00a0 Rossi went on to say: \u201cThe songs focus primarily on the joy and heartbreak of relationships, love lost and rediscovered, battles with monogamy, battles with identity.\u00a0 It came out much darker than I had intended, but sometimes you only have so much control.\u00a0 I think more than anything, I see this debut release as a bridge towards something bigger and truer.\u201d\u00a0 We say:\u00a0 done.<\/p>\n Active Child employs grand orchestral-synth elements, harpo-chamber moments, and layered choral voices, all to great effect.\u00a0 But the new album also includes electronica samples and drums with R&B-ish melodic lines.\u00a0 It’s a heady and hearty mix.<\/p>\n Before you check out some scintillating videos below, check out the album\u2019s first single, Playing House<\/strong><\/em>, below (this the “Chad Valley remix with that dang vocoder opening unfortunately).\u00a0 Motown or OMD, or the love-child thereof<\/strong>??\u00a0 You make the call. Compare this version to the live version on KEXP below.<\/p>\n Active Child–<\/strong>Playing House (Chad Valley remix) As for the videos, first check out Active Child performing Hanging On<\/strong><\/em> for The Line of Best Fit<\/strong><\/a> in Reykjavik <\/strong>during Iceland Airwaves 2011<\/strong>.\u00a0 And then check the trio perform Playing House <\/strong><\/em>and Johnny Belinda <\/strong><\/em>on KEXP<\/strong>. <\/strong><\/em>And then below that check out the first song that drew us to the band, I’m in Your Church at Night<\/strong><\/em>, as done earlier this year on KEXP (and in a decidedly slower arrangement from the recorded version, which you can listen to below the video for comparison’s sake).\u00a0 Both are stunning, but we’ll take the live version for now.<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n[audio:https:\/\/www.thelefortreport.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/15-Playing-House-Chad-Valley-remix.mp3|titles=15 Playing House (Chad Valley remix)]\n