Review - The harmonious formula of Please the Trees seems to have been hand-picked, like characters from the Wizard of Oz, by the Wizard Himself.
On one side, this up-and-coming alt-folk ensemble brings together the former members of the instrumental post-rock band from Tábor called Some Other Place, who have long been loyal to the charming hypnotic long drawn saturated style of Mogwai and Sigur Rós.
On the other side (side B, if you will) of the collective, stands the accoustic guitar loner Václav Havelka aka SelFbrush.
So now we've got our Dorothy and Scare Crow's brain, in the voice and song structure delivered by SelFbrush, supported by the Lion's courage and the Tin Man's heart, from Some Other Place. And, similar to Dorothy's repeated mantra - "There's no place like home" - this band's foretelling success is created by their uniqueness.
Václav Havelka's characteristically captive voice and song-form breaks up and clears out the post rock gluttony, and, in exchange, the band returns the favor by delivering explosive blasts of powerful instrumental accompaniment always at the right moment.
Please the Trees mention alt-folk stars Wilco as their idols, and deny any difficulties with pop music, all of which however can joyfully be found in Lion Prayer.
The strongest moments of this album come, when the whole band stops being afraid of the straight and narrow, while allowing themselves the time to waste on keyboard arrangements, violins and amateur-like "sugar-coated" style vocals from young actresses Aňa Geislerová and Lenka Krobotová.
The fact that Václav Havelka could handle a different way of singing as well, along with the presence of all the above mentioned gimmicks, is also a result of producer & Sunshine bass player Amak's supervision, and including providing the recording studio.
A brilliant example of the music's 'heavy-petting' you can find in Wrong Along, I'm Afraid of You, Ready to Shout or in the album's absolute emotional core-wonder Red Sky.
Nonetheless, those worthy moments cover just about half of the album. The rest of it gives way to the band's self-absorption, which results in occasional boredom, hardly presentable as dreaminess or even hypnoticism.
Then again, thanks to the painter Laďa Gažiová's cover (probably one of the most beautiful covers ever created in the Czech Republic), you will have the desire to treat Lion Prayer like the keystone of your new music collection.
Whether you will continue filling your music treasure trove with the next Please the Trees album, or with any other stuff that's coming out from the growing Czech scene intent on reflecting the global trend, and not to keep recycling the feel-good beer rock, which is still going strong in this country, Please the Trees roars out an important message -- that in Lion Prayer we can all recognize the "Yellow Brick Road".
