Jim Ward: Quiet In The Valley, On The Shores The End Begins & The Electric Six

Jim Ward
Quiet In The Valley, On The Shores The End Begins & The Electric Six
Tembloroso Recordings [2011]








Fire Note Says: Jim Ward collects all of his songs in one place for a solid acoustic history of what the At The Drive-In/Sparta frontman has been up to.

Album Review:
If you have not been keeping up with the former frontman of At The Drive-In and Sparta, Jim Ward, then you will be surprised to hear this very folk-Americana acoustic record. Quiet In The Valley, On The Shores The End Begins & The Electric Six is actually a collection of his last 3 acoustic EPs, which covers a span of 4 years dating back to 2007, while The Electric Six contains newly recorded electric versions of selected tracks from the EPs. You might think that this record would be all over the place, considering these tracks were not originally recorded or planned to be together but the record actually has a descent flow. There is not tons of flare on this album which helps it maintain consistency as Ward gets to highlight his songwriting talent. At 48 minutes, Quiet In The Valley, On The Shores The End Begins takes a bit to get through since its song pace falls right between slow and mid-tempo. What is interesting, is that most of his earlier tracks still hold up today and taking in the Quiet EP again, I believe they even sound a bit better. With the record having much of the same instruments some pieces still stand out like the superb strumming on "Coastlines" is memorable while "Broken Songs" features Tegan Quin (Tegan and Sara) helping out with the harmonies and adds in a cello plus then you get the jazzy instrumental "Lake Travis", which offers a completely different side to Ward. The Electric Six is a nice edition to this acoustic album as Ward reworks some of the stand out tracks here with a full rock intention. This 6 song EP is the hidden gem of this compilation as Ward is a natural with a full rock sound behind him. "Broken Songs" reappears here and I actually have a hard time making up my mind which version I like more because both are solid. Quiet In The Valley, On The Shores The End Begins & The Electric Six does highlight Jim Ward as a clear talent that now hopefully more people will get to hear and we only look forward to where he goes from here be it acoustic or electric!

Key Tracks: "Coastlines", "Broken Songs", "Decades"

Bands With Similar Fire:
Patrick Park
Frank Turner
Jason Isbell

Sleepercar: West Texas [Fire Note Review 4/21/08]
Jim Ward: Quiet EP [Fire Note Review 11/15/07]

Tembloroso Recordings

-Reviewed by Christopher Anthony