Reservations – ‘Taking Time’ (album stream) (premiere)

Having started out as a minimalist folk band, Austin’s Reservations have honed their sound to the point know where it finds a comfortable balance between the dreamy sound of Mazzy Star, the ragged style of Crazy Horse, and the more plaintive side of Belle and Sebastian. Their debut full-length is strikingly beautiful, its ten songs, which were written by singer Jana Horn when she was 19, showing remarkable maturity. Taking Time is so self-assured that when you’re offered to premiere it for all to hear, you can only reply, “How soon can we put this up?”

“So much of the album is what we took out,” says Horn. “We recorded vocals for months only to go back to the scratch takes. Paul might have recorded a hundred guitar parts for each song. What didn’t need to be there, we got rid of, as precious as the part felt. I was trying to graduate when we were recording the album, getting a writing degree here in Austin. My mentor at the University taught me that writing is revising, being willing to lose even those moments that you have to have, but the song can’t hold. That was basically the album. You have to lose what’s precious to you, and be vulnerable to the result. It’s about creating space.”

Taking Time is out now. Learn more about Reservations here.