Album Preview: Ages and Ages - Divisionary

New York – Based in Portland Oregon, Ages and Ages is a Pacific Northwest outfit through and through. With seven part harmonies that ascend like the redwoods, rocky beats that roll like the Pacific coastline and ruminant themes that wander like trails, Ages and Ages is inspiring like wide-open space. Their latest album, Divisionary, comes out March 25th on Partisan Records, and the title track “Divisionary (Do The Right Thing)” is available now.

The group numbers at 7 – Rob Oberdorfer, Tim Perry, John McDonald, Levi Cecil, Becca Shultz, Annie Bethancourt and Sarah Riddle. Front man Perry created Ages and Ages in 2009, and original members also included Grahman Mackenzie and Daniel Hunt. In 2011, they released their debut album Alright You Restless on Knitting Factory Records.

In the wake of their first release, critical response was overwhelmingly positive. In 2011, Willamette Week named them one of Portland’s Best New Bands, and the group even gained a presidential stamp of approval when their track “No Nostalgia” was featured on Obama’s 2012 Presidential Campaign Spotify Playlist.

As it tends to, life got in the way and several members suffered family tragedies following their debut. The grief was peppered with joy, too, as other members got married and had children. While the combination of bliss and despair seemed to slow their writing, the complex fabric of emotions clearly weaved its way into their creative process.

And now, two years later, the group is back to dazzle us with Divisionary. Thematically, this album is darker than the group’s first. Yet, layered vocals, chirpy whistles and handclap beats somehow ease the heavy themes. Obviously, Ages and Ages gained quite a bit of emotional intelligence in the period before the release. The group comes through now with evident maturity and an overarching optimistic outlook on life in spite of strife.

Nowhere is their growth more apparent than on their newly released title track. The single starts slow, and escalates into a ruckus of a rolling chorus. The track stomps along like a hike to an epic peak, one foot after another, pulling us up to a melodic panorama. From the moment we reach the summit of this song, we are hooked. With Perry calling for us to “Do the right thing / Do it all the time,” it is all too easy to bask in this mantra and take to heart it aim.

At its core, the title track is elegantly sunny and moving in nature. This is true, too, of the album at large. Simply put, Divisionary is lovable for how it makes us feel. A seemingly straightforward concept, few bands are fit enough to achieve this sentiment, and to do so wish such inherent effortlessness.

As feel good as Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes, with melodies as sweet as the Lumineers and with drumbeats as powerful as Dr. Dog, Ages and Ages are not to be missed. Get into their title track today and get psyched for Divisionary in full in March. Like a long walk in the woods, it is sure to transport you to a higher place.

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Liz Rowley

Born in Mexico and raised in Toronto, Jerusalem and Chicago by a pair of journalists, Liz comes to BestNewBands.com with an inherited love of writing. After discovering a niche for herself in music journalism and radio while at Bates College in Maine, she always keeps a running playlist of new music to soundtrack her place in the world. Liz is passionate about helping dedicated, talented musicians gain the exposure they deserve. A recent transplant to Brooklyn from Hawaii, she is plagued by an incurable case of wanderlust and cursed with an affinity for old maps and old things like typewriters and vintage books. She adores photography and running and is very good with plants. Having come of age in Chicago, Wilco speaks to her soul. If she could be anything, she would be a cat in a Murakami novel.