{"id":912,"date":"2010-08-16T09:26:37","date_gmt":"2010-08-16T16:26:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/?p=912"},"modified":"2010-08-16T09:26:37","modified_gmt":"2010-08-16T16:26:37","slug":"marah-life-is-a-problem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/2010\/08\/marah-life-is-a-problem\/","title":{"rendered":"MARAH + Life is a Problem"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/Life-is-a-Problem-M-Review-June2010.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-913\" title=\"Life-is-a-Problem-M-Review-June2010\" src=\"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/Life-is-a-Problem-M-Review-June2010.jpg\" alt=\"Life is a Problem\" width=\"400\" height=\"250\" srcset=\"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/Life-is-a-Problem-M-Review-June2010.jpg 400w, https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/Life-is-a-Problem-M-Review-June2010-300x187.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/a>M<\/strong><strong>ARAH<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Life is a Problem<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>[Valley Farm Songs]<\/p>\n<p>The latest release from Marah comes with a lot of firsts. As usual, there have been changes in the lineup\u2014Marah is now essentially the duo of singer and guitarist Dave Bielanko and keyboardist Christine Smith. <em>Life Is a Problem <\/em>is also the first Marah album not released on CD in the U.S. Instead, it\u2019s available in hipster-deluxe gatefold LP, MP3 and cassette (yes, you read that correctly) formats. As for the music itself, that\u2019s a bit different too. Alongside vintage out-to-save-rock Marah\u2014from the epic title track to the balls-out blast that closes the album\u2014you\u2019ll find the soaring \u201cValley Farm Song,\u201d which reads like Bruce Springsteen\u2019s treatment of folk music on acid, and gorgeous, stately balladry (\u201cWithin the Spirit Sagging\u201d). There are off-kilter takes on traditional folk (\u201cBright Morning Stars\u201d) as well as plunked banjo, scratchy fiddle, barnyard noises and samples scattered everywhere. Marah has always been defined by the ramshackle, and this is a new and beautiful iteration of that ethos.<\/p>\n<p>\u2013Stuart Munro<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>MARAH Life is a Problem [Valley Farm Songs] The latest release from Marah comes with a lot of firsts. As usual, there have been changes in the lineup\u2014Marah is now essentially the duo of singer and guitarist Dave Bielanko and keyboardist Christine Smith. Life Is a Problem is also the first Marah album not released [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[196,80,521,520,522],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/912"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=912"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/912\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":914,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/912\/revisions\/914"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=912"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=912"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}