Fairhazel - “It Takes Time”

We first became fans of Fairhazel back in March, with the release of “Rhododendron,” but, today, he’s back on the blog with a fresh track: “It Takes Time.”

Already landing on Spotify’s All New Indie editorial playlist, Fairhazel’s “It Takes Time” does not particularly need any sort of praise that our blog can offer, but we are going to praise it nonetheless. This track opens with some acoustic guitar and what sounds like the gentle notes from a piano, bound together very delicately, as though you’ve opened an antique music box. A swell of strings soon joins the arrangement, providing a gentle and soothing lift to the production before fading back to make room for the vocals.

And once these vocals appear, you will understand why we wanted to feature this song in the first place. They are charmingly delicate, perfectly delivered in a manner that will immediately capture the interest of anyone who is fond of Elliott Smith, Sufjan Stevens, or the earlier work of Bon Iver. Fairhazel has masterfully utilized a falsetto here, flawlessly doubled in order to completely saturate every square inch of the soundscape. And if that were not enough, as the song moves forward, layers of harmonies are draped across the top, resulting in what we can only refer to as a complete and total sonic masterpiece.

More guitars find their place along the way, delivering the sweetest of ear candy and demonstrating Fairhazel’s firm grip on the art of song craft. The music is so robust with different sounds that many will fail to realize the lack of percussive elements until the kick drum starts to appear in the back half of the second verse. You will likely listen to “It Takes Time” over and over, just as we have done, for this is the kind of music that made us start the blog in the first place.

-HD