Aireline

“Aireline's Ocean Songs from the Year of the Horse is a strong debut for these Nashville indie-rockers. From the darkly engaging first track ‘Legionnaire’, the songs progress logically and show a band brimming with creativity and inventiveness. ‘People Like These’ is a definite strong point of the album, beginning as the closest thing to an all-out rocker on the album before shifting into moody dream-pop mode for an especially gorgeous instrumental explosion. ‘Traveling through Dangerous Scenery’ ends the album spectacularly and comes closest to achieving a distinct identity for Aireline.” - Michael Misiak Southeast Perfo

“Aireline had a spectacular intro with ‘Rest Your Bones.’ Two of the band members had bare feet, which displayed their easy going, fun nature. I loved the singer’s vocal reach. ‘How I Spent My Time in the City’ is a self-exposing portrayal of life; ‘The Ghosts Below’ and the entire CD, Ocean Songs from the Year of the Horse – recorded with Phil Gharib of Murfreesboro – is breath taking.” - Wendy

“Depression, melancholy, despair, loss, death and the afterlife -- these are subjects that bring to mind a band of Nick Cave worshippers, not the admittedly ethereal but strangely uplifting, occasionally gorgeous music this Tennessee quartet creates. Ardent disciples of the Radiohead/Coldplay school of driving yet elegant modern rock with more than a few arty pretensions, Aireline come close to transcending (if not entirely surpassing) their influences on this fine debut. These eight songs feature nearly as many pianos as guitars, but the keyboards are primarily more Bach than Ben Folds. One of the best tracks, ‘Rest Your Bones’, has as its lead instrument a commanding, glorious pipe organ, the like of which is rarely heard these days outside of a church or a record with Rick Wakeman on it. Another, ‘How I Spent My Time In The City’, wraps its meditation on urban disillusion around a mournful, classical piano cadence. Not that the keys always entirely outshine the guitars; fiery, abrasive, nearly funky six string shards disrupt throughout ‘Traveling Through Dangerous Scenery’, and a clean but metal-friendly riff opens and powers ‘The Ghosts Below’. Sometimes, the stringed and keyed instruments work beautifully in tandem, as on the three-note figure that echoes back and forth between the two on ‘Legionnaire’. ” - Chris Kriofske

“Ocean Songs from the Year of the Horse, Aireline's debut album, is a magnificent display of poetry sung to melodic alternative rock. From the first song to the last, Ocean Songs from the Year of the Horse will continue to amaze and impress any listener with the beautifully poetic lyrics…” - Chris Kriofske

“If you’re in the mood for spacey, guitar-reverbing, piano-driven rock, then check out Aireline. Their first album, Ocean Songs from the Year of the Horse, is an extremely impressive effort. The keys give a hypnotic feel to some of their songs, while a pipe organ on “rest your bones” is reminiscent of the gravity found in a Beethoven composition or an old church hymn. “Me and the Sea” plays like a lost b-side from the ok computer recording sessions. “The Ghosts Below” begins with a haunting guitar riff that leads into pensive song that questions what we see and touch. You’re the one who opens my eyes, you’re the one who fall in disguise. You’re the one who empties my mind when I feel like I will fall. Melancholy tunes, good for the soul in times of introspection. Their The Winter Song EP released in January.” - JH

On their debut full-length LP, Ocean Songs From The Year Of The Horse, Murfreesboro quartet Aireline fulfill on the promise they have shown at live gigs over the past two years on the local scene. Opening with Legionnaire, Aireline makes its case up front with a deeply considered arrangement, Mason Frenzel's rolling piano leads and guitarist Chris McMurtry's tense, arpeggio-laden counterpoints that recall Bends-era Radiohead. Frenzel's vocals, meanwhile, are well matched for the high drama of the music on display here, alternating between falsetto and a kind of resigned, melancholic breathiness. On tracks such as Me and The Sea and the pipe organ-assisted Rest Your Bones, the effect, digested with Frenzel's acute sense of melody, is stirring. Standouts also include the dreamlike How I Spent My Time In The City, which devolves into controlled chaos, and the slinky, uptempo People Like These. Taken as a whole, the impression that Aireline delivers on this debut, not to mention the subtly precise song structures and a secret-weapon rhythm section, make Ocean Songs From The Year Of The Horse a notable, promising release. - Jonathan Flax

Ocean Songs accomplishes the semi-rare task of having every musical part interesting on its own, but cohesing into a smooth unit when combined. Bass lines that add flavor to the mix instead of just keeping the rhythmn, drums that explode into a controlled frenzy or quietly keep things moving, soaring guitar solo's, haunting piano, and vocals with harmonies in all the right places make up just a few of the elements that gel the album together so well. The album presents itself strongly throughout its 42 minutes of playing time. Strangely enough, the majority of songs have a very dark tone to them, even though they are catchy and certainly worthy of a good head-bobbing. The especially poignant album opener "Legionnaire", the spooky to groove laden "Rest Your Bones", the breezy to forceful "People Like These", and the frantic "Traveling Through Dangerous Scenery" are all great examples of this. - Michael Eades