Right in the opening of The Spinning Leaves‘ debut LOVE, we hear a bit of chatter and some joyful exclamations, both of which are good indicators of the kind of group we’re dealing with here. Rarely is that sense of camaraderie and honest-to-goodness fun felt even at a show, much less on record, and that’s probably what makes the album so endearing.
Certainly there are a lot of folk acts in Philly, and a lot of them draw heavily from Dylan, and The Spinning Leaves are no different in that regard. A few of the tracks rely (rather beautifully, of course) on a slightly raspy drawl and harmonica. But this isn’t to say that the album holds no surprises; far from it. "Try, Try, Try, Try, Try, Try" takes advantage of some horns to whip up a sort of New Orleans jazz ditty. The sitar in "Marigolds" is rather unexpected, as are the gypsy guitar stylings in "A Tale of the Northern Lights". These variations never get spread too thin, thankfully, as the album runs about 45 minutes (the perfect length, in my opinion).
My favorite parts of the record though are still the little inserts at the beginnings of certain songs. The chatter on the first track, again, is a highlight, but a variety of other noises can be heard on LOVE, from the crackling of a bonfire to the oddly dark spoken-word piece "Together". Little touches like this give the album a sense of something beyond itself. You’re not just listening to a CD, you’re having an experience, however quaint and modest that experience may be.
But hopefully with all this talk of "little touches", I’m not making anything about the record seem gimmicky. Because gimmicky it is not. At the heart of LOVE is charming boy/girl vocals, solid songwriting, and beautifully crisp production. And you get the sense that, if you asked The Spinning Leaves themselves, they’d probably say that’s all they need.
– Joe Poteracki