I've had a couple days to take it all in, and I get it now. I had to listen to the whole thing uninterupted and in its entirety. Several times. It's still very dark. I wonder if it was meant from the beginning as a 'band' effort, or if this was a collection of works Alison had set aside for her own project. It seems like a mix of both, but flows so seamlessly together that you can't tell where one started and the other left off. I think that's a testament to both her choosiness of songs and the talent of people she is surrounded by to present the songs in a cohesive way. I think Union Station has become bigger than just the band that tours... it's what she imagines a song to sound like when it's played. Maybe right down to who plays it. Might even be her own brother, arranging a string section.
Listened to as a whole, I believe it's a better product than Paper Airplane was, and that was a great project. There are some vintage-sounding tracks on here, and when I read the personnel list, my guessing was confirmed. The guitar I'd been hearing was Dan Tyminski and sure enough, Adam Steffey is there on two tracks playing mandolin. Russell Moore is only credited with having sang vocals on this record, which doesn't surprise me given the short timeframe between the announcement that he'd be replacing Dan in the tour lineup, and the album dropping. Stuart Duncan is listed here too, playing twin fiddle, filling in another puzzle piece.
I'm going to take a break from Arcadia today. It really does affect you on an emotional level... to the point of distraction. You can't listen to it casually. It isn't that kind of record.
