In the description on The End of America’s Bandcamp site, the opening line states that, “The End of America is not some grand political statement. Instead, it is an honest attempt between three friends to return music to its purest form.”

Their debut album, Steep Bay, opens with a song titled “Are You Lonely”. Its trembling melody is an abstract anxiety communicated via guitar. It insinuates the feeling of isolation which is, as we know, a very frightening feeling at first. The song is very frightened, it is very timid… it seems to prey upon the childlike uncertainty of the unknown and all the emotions it can trigger. This is a very strong connective element that the album carries throughout, though it fades as the tracks gradually grow with confidence.

The succeeding track, “Running”, is extremely strong and definite in comparison. While “Are You Lonely” used harmonised vocals and delicate melodies, “Running” uses an assured collective of loud acoustic strumming along with louder, more empowering vocals. It’s this track, with its lyrics, “I’ve been running / All my life,” that introduces The End of America’s journey.

“Fiona Grace” is one of the strongest-holding tracks on the album, simply because it personifies how simple and sweet an otherwise mathematical music like folk can be. It’s a beautiful ode to a three year old girl, and again, embodies a childhood element of innocence and sunshine and freedom.

It’s very hard to identify the strongest and weakest moments of Steep Bay because it flows together so seamlessly. Each song does, of course, have its own personality, but it’s best absorbed together, as a whole work. That’s a very good thing, because it’s not a pop album. I don’t think they’re looking to sell stand-alone hits out of this. I think that Steep Bay, as an album, is a very definitive and consistent piece of art.

That being said, there is something about the overall feeling of Steep Bay that gets under one’s skin. It’s the kind of album that stays resonant with a place, a time and a feeling and every time you put it on, it calls you back to that. It also builds on those memories with new ones, or with new adventures you’ve yet to experience. The guitar, the banjo, the bells… all these rustic instrumental elements create a warm familiarity within the music. It’s an album with imagination, an album that makes you really feel something. A wonderment, a kind of awe… and in my opinion, that’s art done right.

Now, before even hearing any of The End of America’s sounds, I felt a major relief in finding that they weren’t trying to sell me an idea. It turns out that they took the Bon Iver route in recording, distancing themselves in a remote location in order to really find the roots of the music that they wanted to make and, I assume, not be distracted by mass channelled influences.

Steep Bay was recorded in Schroon Lake, which is in the Adirondack Mountains in New York, I believe. Usually, none of this information would even matter to me, but after hearing the album a couple of times, I researched the place… and something really clicked. Schroon Lake looks like the idealistic folk writer’s retreat - a wooden village centered around this great expanse of glittering water, forest trees on every side and an overwhelming sense of quiet about the place. The quiet itches at an artist’s brain, forcing them to evaluate the noise that formerly used to occupy it. Thus, the truest of folk music is created. It’s born out of one’s imagination, influenced only by the atmosphere around it which is folk music, as a whole.

The End of America have a blossoming career ahead of them for one simple reason - they’re an honest band. People will easily be able to identify with them, and the more the merrier. I feel as if they’re liable to become a band that people will associate with very personally, as their music really does infiltrate the background of a person’s life. They’re constant, they’re trustworthy, they’re genuine. And I have great faith that they will go on to be superb.