Appreciation Night

Appreciation Night is the debut full-length from the Chicago-based band Bound Stems. The anchor of the album is their hometown, where the din of the elevated train, clattering turnstiles, late night house parties, intimate conversations and the soft crunch of winter's snow are layered throughout the 15 track sequence. The songs themselves, arranged with the intricate precision of a timepiece, are filled with rhythm patterns mirroring youth's reckless abandon, dissonant guitar washes and warm keyboards, all of which build to crescendos of dizzying heights. The narrative threads, coming-of-age vignettes interwoven with historical references from the Civil War to present day, are delivered in a patchwork of vocal melodies that are as memorable as any instrumentation on the album.