★★★★★
Easy, breezy, beautiful.... it's definitely not Cover Girl, so maybe it's The Graves. Sweet pop music, how I love thee so. Well, sometimes I do, and sometimes I hate you. But when someone like Portland's Greg Olin writes you and gathers together his "friends, lovers and friends of lovers lovers's" (that is confusing) to perform you under a name like The Graves, I love you, pop music. Truly I do...
- www.lostatsea.net
2010-02-19
★★★★★
While its California-influenced name may suggest otherwise, To Sur With Love isn't the happy, sunny pop record you might expect. It is, however, a lovely collection of languid, melancholy songs. They are lush yet hushed, and they will meander their way into your mind while you're lying on a lawn chair wondering where your summer and lover may have disappeared to...
- www.adequacy.net
2009-07-21
★★★★★
I mean, look at that cover. What is it? Turkish pop vinyl from the late '60s? Some Far Eastern folk prog madness reissued by Finders Keepers? Nope, it's album number four from Oregon DIY pop whiz Greg Olin, a man who, as far as this writer is aware, is about as desirous of self-promotion as these two chaps. Whether I played it out of boredom, curiosity or a rare combination of both I can't remember, but what was contained within came as an extremely a pleasant shock...
- www.mojo4music.com
2009-07-21
★★★★★
To Sur with Love is as appropriate a title as any you're likely to find this year. Bridging the narrowest gap between Geoff Farina and Jack Johnson, The Graves' Greg Olin writes simple, jazz-tinged folk songs that invite the listener to imagine bon-fires and big waves. This is meant to be chill music for the clever Californian child. At its best, To Sur With Love is quite charming: "China" conjures M...
- tinymixtapes.com
2009-06-08
★★★★★
Portland, OR-based songwriter Greg Olin goes by the moniker Graves, and it's just as well; Yes Yes O.K. O.K. is an exercise in perfecting the pop dirge. Don't worry -- that's a good thing.To keep running with this metaphor, listening to Yes Yes is a lot like digging; beneath a loosely knitted lyrical weave and carefully textured instrumentation, you'll find a real gem. Olin's voice recalls Jeff Tweedy at his best (think Being There) and is confident in the fragility it hoards...
- www.splendidezine.com
2009-02-27