Miracle Fortress - Five Roses

Graham van Pelt could easily be a member of the Animal Collective: buzzier than Panda Bear, he'd be called Bumble Bee

Album Review by Ally Brown | 08 Oct 2007
Album title: Five Roses
Artist: Miracle Fortress
Label: Rough Trade
While you should never judge a book by its cover, albums like Five Roses are fair game. Blurred, blotchy flowers in different shades of pink and yellow seem appropriate: Montreal's Graham van Pelt combines the hazy aesthetics of shoegaze, dream-pop and Warm Jets-era Eno with Beach Boys-esque melodies, lyrics of wide-eyed wonderment and sugar-sweet production. By the sounds of things, he could easily be a member of the Animal Collective: buzzier than Panda Bear, he'd be called Bumble Bee. Five Roses is aptly named too; though it contains twelve tracks, five of them are particularly pretty, and Have You Seen In Your Dreams' wheedling synth hook marks it as one of the year's best songs. Parts of the second half do meander and wilt, and the sweet smell can get overwhelming at times, but Five Roses is efflorescent enough to suggest Miracle Fortress could blossom in years to come. [Ally Brown]
Release Date: 1 Oct http://www.myspace.com/miraclefortress