Miracle Fortress: Five Roses

Miracle Fortress
Five Roses
Secret City
2007-05-22

Montreal’s Graham Van Pelt has been tearing up the music blog circuit recently. First it was with his thrash pop outfit Think About Life, and now it’s with his own solo recording project, Miracle Fortress (whose live incarnation also features Sunset Rubdown’s Jordan Robson-Cramer). All the attention comes for good reason. Much less intense than Van Pelt’s other work, Five Roses mixes the dramatic scope of Sigur Rós with the summery melodies of Brian Wilson. And though it might just be the May weather talking, the delicate vocals and lush instrumentation seem to perfectly mirror winter’s slow thaw into spring. There are some stretches of instrumental filler, but for the most part (and particularly in the case of tracks like “Maybe Lately”, “Little Trees”, and “Hold Your Secrets to Your Heart”) Miracle Fortress’ debut is a thing of rare beauty.

RATING 7 / 10