In its 13 years together, Richmond, Va. quintet Carbon Leaf has evolved from an Irish-laced bar band into a legitimate rock outfit, and one of Vanguard Record's most coveted artists-along the way winning a soda company's "Best New Artist" contest and earning a bona fide hit with "Life Less Ordinary" (on 2004's Indian Summer album). Led by singer/songwriter Barry Privett and a stinging Rickenbacker 12-string, the band wastes no time aiming for a follow-up on Love Loss Hope Repeat. "But I can see you fly away," sings a disheartened Privett on the break-up song "Learn To Fly," rising up to proclaim, "As I fall apart, I learn to fly." Such an optimism-replaces-hopelessness blueprint, which has befitted Carbon Leaf on five previous records, is peppered throughout the 11 songs here, including the country-flavored "Block of Wood" and perhaps the strongest track of the herd, "A Girl and Her Horse." "And away she rides to the great unknown," Privett sings over a driving guitar lead, effusively aware that Carbon Leaf now knows precisely where it's going. --Scott Holter
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