A Church That Fits Our Needs

I have been listening repeatedly to Lost In The Trees disk, A Church That Fits Our Needs. It is rather hard to stuff into a box. Lost In The Trees is a folky, slightly orchestral band from North Carolina. Shortly after lead songwriter Ari Picker's wedding, his mother committed suicide. She stares out from the cover, looking a bit like a Renaissance painting.

The album asks profound and impossible to answer question about mortality,which could easily lead a lesser songwriter into a self-indulgent macabre exercise. Picker, however, offers up lyrical possibilities that build to a transformative catharsis. While this album is about death, it finds a way to transcend it. Beautiful and haunting, every listen brings out something new. In an era where music can be be banal, A Church That Fits Our Needs is on its way to becoming the best album of the year.