It’s not an ordinary day when you stumble upon a hidden gem of an album. The kind of album that you try to talk to your friends about, only to be met by blank stares. The kind of album that you expect to be the magnum opus of an already famous band, only to discover they have less than 1,000 monthly Spotify listeners. That’s the kind of day I had last March when I discovered “Posey Hollow Quartet” by Ably House.
The whole album has an eerie feel, fitting for a band named after a famous haunted house. Many tracks have strange, unidentifiable instruments and distorted, experimental guitar parts that are simultaneously satisfying and suspenseful. Not only that, but the album is incredibly cohesive; I am a strong believer in the art of the album, and Ably House knocked it out of the park with this one. Some tracks blend seamlessly into one another, while others have small breaks in between them for the listener to get a breath.
Along with being an incredibly cohesive album, “Posey Hollow Quartet” encompasses multiple different vibes. “Melancholia,” my favorite track on the album, has a distinct 90s indie feeling to it. Meanwhile, “Balcony” and “Down on the Farm” have the feel of a Revolver or Sgt. Pepper-era Beatles song with a more modern twist. And “Grave Song,” with its rhythmic bassline and impressive guitar solo, reminds me of a psychedelic rock song from the 60s; if you told me it was a cover of a Creedence Clearwater Revival or the Doors deep cut, I’d probably believe you.
I’m still not completely sure how I stumbled across such a diamond in the rough. With its so few monthly listeners and almost no social media presence, I know close to nothing about the band itself, but there is one thing I do know: they created a no-skip gem of an album with “Posey Hollow Quartet.”