Album Review: You Kiss By The Book - Family Tree

'Family Tree' is the third from Dublin band You Kiss by the Book fronted by Simon Dowling and it's a well rounded slice of Americana folk perfect for repeated plays on long Autumn nights. 


I've been aware of 'Family Tree' for a few months but only getting round to giving the album a real listen in recent days. I'm not sure what to put that down to because I got into 'Bear Leader' the second album from 'You Kiss by the Book' and in general I'm all for the Americana folk sound which the band have perfected on this album.

In many ways the band reminds me of 'Bright Eyes'. The vocals don't appeal to me in the same way that I don't rate the out of tune vocals of Conor Oberst but I'm able to put that aside to focus on the lyrics and stories with a soundtrack of the highest quality.

The tracks that do appeal to me are 'Can't Go Back' with it's excellent violin section at the end, '15 years' for it's charming harmonies and 'I Was A Miner' which is lyrically and musically the best song on the album.





Overall this is a lovely charming album of indie-folk tunes that deserves the good reviews it has received since it was released in the Summer. The only negative is the vocals but every album or band can't be perfect!

You Kiss by the Book - Family Tree [9 out of 12]






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