Indian Summer Revisited

The sky unwrapped the world, my toy

Carbon Leaf did the "re-record your albums to reclaim your artistic rights and freedom" thing before Swift made it popular. lol.

But yeah, this is the first of several re-recorded projects from Leaf that they did, mainly to reclaim their material from their old label, but also to demonstrate how much they've changed over the years. Having played these songs live for so long, their sound has morphed more or less so this version of the record provides a neat little update.

The sound is crisper and more hi-fi, the instrumentation is more lush and expansive (those strings on Life Less Ordinary, and the organ on Grey Sky Eyes!) and Barry sounds rejuvenated and wizened at the same time, his voice ringing out clear as he reinterprets these old classics. There's subtle changes in the vocal inflections that add a little somethin'-somethin' to these tracks that makes my ears perk up.

Overall, while I still enjoy the original album very much, hearing this re-recorded version just solidifies not only how amazing this album is, but how important this record is to me and it's a testament to Leaf's talents and convictions as artists.