Winter Vacation - Holland, 1980 Winter Vacation - Holland, 1980 (Asaurus Records)

Holland, 1980 is consistantly very nice and pleasant. One of those pop albums which is pretty much irresistable. Quiet and gentle mostly, with an almost Dylan-esque folk break. The music is impeccable, like a marble wall you can't find a nick in to disrupt the smooth appearance. The album is almost ambient at times. Winter Vacation lives up to its moniker with cool sounds throughout the record. You get whispy clean guitars, organs, pianos, and of course drums and bass, along with David Yourdon's (from Brooklyn's Pathways) wavering voice with a treble-y lo--fi four-track tone (though no tape hiss audible to these ears).

Beginning with "Sightseeing" the record takes on a carefree attitude, and we go through the little world illustrated so attractively by Yourdon song by song. Winter Vacation certainly has a sound with which it could be indentified by the listener, Yourdon does take some time to make use of other directions in his songs, especially on the noisy "Life Imitates Arthur," which seems to boast the bells and whistles of a busy port town, "Upstate Estate," which reminds me of Bob Dylan's more thoughtful, sweeter material on The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, and the instrumental "Balloon Township," which features a droning organ and very nice melody. The albums ends with the almost meloncholy, reflective song, "The Alps," which I think best supports singing along on this album, and is a really great payoff for the rest of the record, even though the rest of the record wasn't any work anyway.  ¶ 7:45 PM