Doesn't seem long since the last Autumn's Grey Solace album, Over the Ocean, came out. Now there's Riverine, a similarly impressive album. Autumn's Grey Solace are a dreampop band led by the ethereal-voiced Erin Welton, whose voice fits the music perfectly. Her vocals are quite often multi-layered, giving a very beautiful choral effect. The mood ranges from soaring to sombre, but a strong atmospheric feel pervades the music at all times. Highly recommended for fans of the shoegazer genre.

Opener "Human Shell" sounds like Cocteau Twins with audible words. Welton's voice weaving round a soft melody.

"Dormant" is sweet and has a gorgeous musical backing by Ferrell.

"A Tangle of scars" belies its title by sounding restful and lovely.

"All inside a tangle of scars/Always have a tortuous way" sings Welton winsomely.

The catchy yet fragile "Hollow Girl" sees her singing at its best.

This album is a great listen from start to finish. -Anna Maria Stjärnell

Clear guitars and a bright female voice enter my room when I put on "Riverine", the third album by Autumn's Grey Solace from Florida. No keyboards or synths were used on this record, so the booklet explicitly states. The duo Scott Ferell (guitar, rhythms) and Erin Welton (vocals) don't need electronic means to build up a tremendous amount of atmosphere.

You cannot describe this album without using labels like ethereal, shoegazer and dreampop. Therefore familiar names spring to mind: Cocteau Twins, Lush, Love Spirals Downwards. I also have to think of recent Words-on-Music acts like Fiel Garvie and Lorna. Delicate, poetic music which gets me in its spell with apparent ease.

Except for 'The Unshakable Demon,' which suddenly releases unexpected passionate energy in an almost rocking track, most tracks are relatively tranquil. Excellent shimmering guitar textures, lovely heavenly vocals, a decent and modest rhythmic foundation. "Riverine" contains warm, dreamy music and is certainly one of the best releases in its genre. -HD

Shortly after the release of their sophomore album we're already presented with the latest work from this awesome ethereal shoegazer band. Riverine is a trip through Erin's world of soft, lush vocals moved presented over a tapestry of various guitars and light rhythms.

Those familiar with the previous album from this group will immediately feel its familiarity from the smooth and soothing sound. "Human Shell" kicks it all off in the soft, yet slightly moving style this band has perfected. Erin's vocals set the listener adrift over the elegantly composed guitars. Fans of Love Spirals Downwards will feel right at home as we drift on to the next track "Falling Sky" with it's dreamy guitars voicing their own melodies that are as beautiful and moving as any siren's vocals.

These two introductory tracks are just the beginning but are complete enough to provide a perfect description for this album. As a whole it is entirely cohesive bringing together a full dozen of these spellbinding tracks. The pace and intensity varies slightly from piece to piece and just plain addictive. It's hard to get enough of this album.

A stellar track that really stands out on this album in style and intensity is "The Unshakable Demon". There's a slight sassy touch in Erin's vocals, but the guitars and moving rhythm provide much of the shift in intensity which is just captivating.

I don't know what more I can say about this album. It's just incredible and leaves the listener breathless... highly recommended. Rating 5/5

The name of the band, Autumn's Grey Solace, brings to mind a group of somber, cowled Goths playing funeral dirge music. Indeed, the titles of the songs—“Sorrow Ashes,” “A Tangle of Scars,” and the cover of the album (dead kudzu vines in aluminum-blue wash) seems to point to that direction. But the first song on the album, “Human Shell” is a shimmering piece of gossamer that recalls Fleetwood Mac by way of the Cocteau Twins. Singer Erin Whelton coos as gently as Karen Carpenter at her most soothing while Scott Ferrell's guitars whirl and eddy like Lindsey Buckingham at his most fey sat in with a session Robin Guthrie. The next piece spins the sugar of voice and guitar into a shoegaze confection that recalls Lush, Chapterhouse and the Pale Saints at their heyday. A choir of new age sprites echo through “Dormant,” my current favorite song—as any song that uses an abandoned library as its central metaphor is likely to. 80's goth bass lines and searing guitar work complete the cycle. And so it goes. AGS doesn't really stray from their 4Adumla. (Whelton “grows” in the “Unshakeable Demon,” but she still sounds like a flower-fairy). But then, they don't have to really stray that far. They just want to make beautiful music, to transport you into a world were sound means everything. Whelton's words feature gauzy, mystical imagery, but her rapturous singing sweeps the literal meanings away. Ferrell's tricks are wondrous—“Cloudburst” sounds like it was played entirely by basses and the tunings of the guitars are as symphonic as anything by Sigur Ros. But as wild and magical as AGS's music is, its still adheres to the three minute, classic pop song rule. “Riverine” knows that you need a little bit of light to define the shadows. - Craig Gidney

Autumn's Grey Solace returns with Riverine, its strongest pledge of allegiance to the Cocteau Twins/4AD sound yet. Scott Ferrell paints layer after colorful layer of crystalline, lush guitarscapes, using gentle but firm rhythms as a canvas and reverb and echo as his palette. Erin Welton sings her poetic lyrics in the voice of a benign spirit, returned from the next world to help us get through this one. For the most part, her predictions are dire; the lyrics of "Outlive" ("Will I have a chance to run?/Before the stars explode"), "Cold and Empty Constellations" and "A Tangle of Scars" seem to disagree with the bright sounds enveloping them. But AGS does kick against the pricks on occasion. "Sorrow Ashes" shakes its fist against organized religion ("Who are they/To tell me I'm okay/Who is anyone?"), while "Human Shell," wrapped in the duo's catchiest pop tune yet, declares "In the middle of this war/I'm a primal force." In the deceptively depressed world of Riverine, things are bleak but never hopeless. -Michael Toland

The third album, Riverine by the duo Erin Welton and Scott Ferrell, who go under the moniker AUTUMN’S GREY SOLACE, has recently been released. The previous two albums seems to have received praise both from right and left, so it was a pleasure for me to make acquaintance with this album that fell into my letter box.

Even though AUTUMN’S GREY SOLACE is for me a totally new name, the bands that the label compares it to are far from unknown. Both LOVE SPIRALS DOWNWARDS and COCTEAU TWINS are surely well known names for many. This is in other words atmosphere in huge quantities and it doesn’t take long until you can establish the fact that this falls easily into the shoegazer style and to this is added some very beautiful ethereal vocals performed by Erin. The songs flows on in a harmonic simplicity, but moves in the same time the listener deeply with its melancholic melodies created by a great work with various effects on the guitar. Drums, which I guess are programmed, are of course present, but has got a really leaned back role and feels as floating as the rest of the music. You find however one song that stands out from the rest and that is the ninth song “The Unshakable Demon”. The tempo is slightly higher and the song breaths a different atmosphere than the rest of the album where the dreamlike is replaced with a slightly more intensive sound.

If you want to describe Riverine with just one word, the word would definitely be beautiful. This is a really beautiful album and I’m deeply impressed by AUTUMN’S GREY SOLACE’s performance, so their two earlier works are now immediately included on my shopping list. If ethereal shoegazer is something that you find to your liking, then Riverine is a must have, since this is really great.

Very dreamy, hypnotic etherea... like bathing in an undulating mist. Balm for the soul, tinged with touches of bittersweet longing that impart emotional edge. Nicely done instrumentation with female vocals. Frissons like evanescent waterfall rainbows. (Review by AF)

The breakup of the Cocteau Twins in the mid-’90s left a void in the realm of ethereal shoegazer music that many thought could never be filled. And indeed, the potent combination of Liz Fraser’s unearthly vocals and Robin Guthrie’s shimmering guitar churn would probably be impossible to replicate exactly. But wow, Autumn’s Grey Solace come darn close. On their new Riverine (their third release), the duo of guitarist/multi-instrumentalist Scott Ferrell and vocalist/lyricist Erin Welton create an angelic soundscape that is unquestionably reminiscent of the Cocteaus. If Welton isn’t as “otherly” as Fraser, she makes up for it with a more sustained sweetness of tone and a complete lack of histrionics.

The sheer beauty of tracks such as “Falling Sky” and “Sorrow Ashes” contributes to an instant rush of recognition. The latter could have been a Victorialand outtake, so familiar is the blend of textured guitars and ethereal female vocals. About those guitars—there’s a curious liner note on the insert booklet the likes of which I’ve never seen before. It says, “No keyboards or synthesizers were used in the making of this recording.” I’ve read similar pronouncements about a lack of guitars on a disc, but no keyboards? Ferrell is obviously proud of the sonic textures he generates with his axe—and he should be. He’s an egoless musician based on the music here: everything is in the service of AGS’s pure, luminous soundscapes. And what a lovely thing, too.

Within their chosen style, the band find ways to create a little variety. “Outlive” is almost a “regular” pop song, with verse-chorus and everything. “Prisoners of time/Enemies of stillness/I wonder/Will I have a chance to run/Before the stars explode?” sings Welton in her typically little-girl-lost manner. On “Hollow Girl,” Ferrell sounds like he’s playing a mandolin, and there’s a discernible bass, too. “The Unshakeable Demon” rocks harder than the other tracks and blunts the angelic vibe—probably the point. “Eclipse” kicks it up a bit, too; the band actually sounds for a moment like early U2 until that sweet vocal comes in. But the album’s best track is probably “Cloudburst,” which is the point where all comparisons cease. Ferrell generates a killer elemental rhythm that grabs you right away, and Welton matches this with her most alluring performance, including an utterly bewitching interval shift that utilizes that major key-minor key switch to induce chills. What a gorgeous gem of a song!

The lyrics to all the tunes are included, so you can follow along if you want. But the best way to experience Autumn’s Grey Solace is to simply lie back, dim the lights, turn off the phone, and let this magical duo cast its spell. Riverine is all about beauty and escape, and anything that provides that combination is always reassuring. - Kevin Renick