SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: VARIOUS ARTISTS – HOME

Various Artists
Home
Warm

Mood compilations have been around for a while, and with the advent of ambient and all that can be cramped within the lounge category the actually started dominating the ‘shadow charts.’ If you’re wandering what ‘shadow charts’ might be just take a look what kind of streams such albums get on Spotify or any other big streaming service.

In most cases, those albums or playlists are just pure audio wallpaper, often created by anonymous studio artists, that actually do complete albums under the category ‘various.’

Sometimes though, you can run into such a mood piece that actually not only hits the mood but also brings along some musical substance and is worth keeping around.

British cooperative Warm just came up with one of those by Ali Tillett, one of its booking agents. With the description of the album that says that Home is “a soundtrack for when we pause, take a breath, and use our senses to explore the magic of the world on our doorsteps. Morning to evening, dawn to dusk, our lives continue moving but sometimes the need to step back and reset is essential to create a balance in our lives…” you initially get the idea that we are bound for yet another aural wallpaper disaster.

Fortunately, Tillett and Gary Moore (no, not that one) who did the field recordings that intersperse the album walk easily along that fine line that separates a good mood piece from grey blandness and come up with a collection that actually fits fine with its given description.

Artist Links