AroarA - 'In the Pines' (album stream)
By Alex HudsonHaving launched AroarA a couple of years back, Broken Social Scene/Apostle of Hustle member Andrew Whiteman and his wife Ariel Engle are preparing to release their debut album. In the Pines is out on August 27 through Club Roll Music (distributed by Universal). Ahead of that in-store arrival, it's available to stream on Exclaim.ca.

The album was named after the American poet Alice Notley's 2007 book In the Pines. That book contains 14 poems about a woman undergoing treatment for Hepatitis C, and with Notley's approval, AroarA wrote a song to go along with each poem.

Nine of those tracks appear here, each named simply after the poem number, and they take an experimental approach to folk and rock. "#10" moves between disorienting, organ-like chords and raw roots licks, while "#3" swells from barely there balladry to rickety atmospherics, and "#12" is anchored by a riff-driven stomp. These were recorded in various Canadian living rooms and mixed by Sandro Perri.