Album Of The Day: The Call Of Home by Held By Trees

Album Art of Held By Trees's The Call Of Home album - A grainy illustration of a cloudy sky with a sun above the clouds. In the foreground there's a bit of a grassy field full of flowers and there's a stairway in the middle up into a doorway in the clouds. Through the doorway can be seen a different sunny landscape where above brightly lit sky is a layer of clouds and then a dark sky with a moon. The colors are mostly deep blue land, light blue clouds, and orange and golden skies with lots of vertical gradients.

Released just yesterday, this is the third album by English post-rock band Held By Trees. About 5-6 years ago, musician David Joseph met some of his heroes, people who played on albums by Talk Talk and Mark Hollis in the '80s and '90s. Those musicians were interested in working with David Joseph on new music and released a few albums and EPs since then under this band. Up until this album, it was mostly just instrumental post-rock jams, fun musical explorations that didn't really often have pop/rock song structures and experimented a lot with sounds. But with The Call Of Home, the band is going in a new direction, at least partially. There's still a few instrumental tracks, but these songs have lyrics and some sound more like a more traditional rock song. David Joseph sings on a good amount of songs, but he also has some guests. Bassist Simone Marie Butler (Primal Scream, Jesus & Mary Chain, Twilight Sad) sings and performs on the heaviest songs this band has ever done, "Not Home Yet" and "It Won't Always Be Like This". American blues artist Eric Bibb also sings on "Needed Time". Also, these lyrics from the band have a lot of religious language, and fans of modern church worship music will recognize some of the lyrical themes as well as some of the guests. Jason Upton sings the title track and it seems like his vocals are more raw and his voice more haggard than I've ever heard from him before. Martin Smith (Delirious?) already did a 3-song EP with Held By Trees, and a version of one of those songs appears here too. And Marc James (Vineyard UK) also appears. I would say this a music album first, not a worship album, and it's primarily for fans of more experimental music. But after a few listens, I'm loving this album and will be listening more. This album is not yet on streaming, though it will be at some point; I think the band likes to sell the album digitally and physically first to raise a bit more money on the album release. But you can listen to it on Bandcamp if you want to sample it.

Release Year: 2026
Buy on Bandcamp
Buy CD/vinyl direct from the artist

Categories: 
Album Of The Day
Music

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