“I noticed in certain places…I find a lot of uptight people because they’re living amongst so much beauty there’s no urgency in trying to find the beauty within themselves.”

–         George Harrison; Press Conference, Los Angeles, 1974

Spirituality can come from the most obscure places as much as it can come from the most obvious. Concurrently, the spirituality of music holds the same characteristics.

For the Californiabased Needle, spirituality and simplicity go hand in hand. Their follow up to 2006’s Songs Your Mother Never Sang You single handedly slows down life’s often hectic pace. Saint Timothy’s grafts together a complete lack of urgency and turns into itself to find beauty – a beauty finely sculpted from keyboards, organs, drums and ethereal vocals. Identifying the vision and direction laid out by Steve Beck and Julia Sea, world renowned Kramer mastered Saint Timothy’s, adding just the slightest touch of experience to an otherwise masterfully constructed piece. 

You’d be hard pressed to recognize that this is just their second album. Although the seven tracks are laid out as separate entities, they are placed in exactly the right place to help the album flow in a superb fashion. There is a seasoned fluidity about each composition that enables you to drift unknowingly from song to song. The composition of each song is far from complex; at times a chord will linger in space by itself, though not without purpose. The themes of grief, new beginnings, and redemption are expressed through minimalistic elements. Though minimal, the effort is no less impactful.

Needle has found elemental beauty in Saint Timothy’s, expressing a sound developed in the solitude of a high desertCalifornia church, through seemingly effortless elegance. The dance of enchanting instrumentals and vocals meticulously placed by Beck and Sea creates an intimate escape.

One which, sadly, lasts just over 25 minutes.