: Listen to the track Strike
: Press Release

Track Listing: 
Strike, Spinning Landscape, Empty Graves, A Slower One, Painted Faces, Your Guilty Prize, When I Come Around, Avernal (V3), Vacant Eyes II

four years and some EPs after 2007's "Without Number", Plumerai return with "Your Guilty Prize". 
i first heard their "home again" a couple of years ago and it has been returning as a listening habit every now and then.
Elizabeth Ezel's voice makes every song sound dreamy, dressing up the pain with a strange melancholy.
this album is indeed a prize, a new way to live a sunday evening.
~ A Silver Home Ghost

Released over 6 months ago, and also a farewell from former singer Elizabeth Ezell. In fact, she'd already left just after the recordings. But let's start this story at the beginning, which goes all the way back to 1994...
...when B.J. Mitchell first met the Newman brothers Martin (guitar) and James (bass), playing in the Boston, Massachusetts based band named burMonter, and befriended 'em. Fast forward about a decade, to the year 2004, when the brothers founded Plumerai in a first line-up and the goal to mix their influences from '80s Punk (check The Misfits, Minor Threat), early '90s British Alternative (check the Cure, Cranes, PJ Harvey) and modern Art-Rock (check Radiohead, Gogol Bordello) into something that displays Shoegazer guitars, Patti Smith vocal stylings, tight drumming, and driving bass lines in an alternative Pop mould. They are signed almost immediately to the Get Nice Records label, who release the band's debut album that same year. Several line-up changes eventually resulted in the inclusion of the aforementioned Ezell into the line-up, and the band signed to Silber Records. But before the 2006 EP res cogitans was released, Get Nicestill released a remix EP entitled Illuminated. Both releases were promoted by a short tour. The band's sophomore album Without Number followed in 2007, as well as more tours, participation to a couple of compilations, a split 7-inch (no info on that), 2009's 4-track Electrical Mess EP (with remixes and live versions)...and something of a short hiatus (during which they recruited Ben Dicke as their drummer)...before a return to recording for the Plumerai's 3rd full-length.
For Your Guilty Prize the band changed their usual course of recording at home, and tracked the material in two sessions at 1867 Recording Studio (formerly a Masonic temple) in Chelsea, MA. Only then did they bring the recordings home (to Darushka-4) for overdubs and embellishments, and eventually had it mixed by Wes Gillespie (where have I heard that name before?) at Roost Factory in Raleigh, NC before having it mastered at New Alliance in Cambridge, MA.
The result is said to be something best resembling the band's live sound...and frankly, I like...nay, I lóve!!! Because this album (which was preceded by the late 2010 Empty Grave single featuring the album tracks  “Empty Grave” and 3strike” also has some variety to it that goes beyond the mere Shoegazer genre. For instance, there's a nice degree of experimentation in the songs “Painted Faces”, “When You Come Around”, and album closer “Vacant Eyes II” (classy Ambient fade-out in the case of the latter), and there's definitely some Jazz elements in the album's title track. For “A Slower One” the band even opens with some nice piano additions, and there's even some violin (or such a sound as possibly generated by keyboard). But what made me sit up and take care right from the start when I gave the album its first listening session, is the very specific sigh-moan vocals. I mean, they're really something you gótta hear! So, with no further ado (ho...first read out the review), first check what's posted at the label's website...then go to (www.) plumerai.com, where you can find 30-second samples of all songs the band ever released. However, if you're into full-length tracks I suggest you visit (www.) facebook.com/plumeraiband, where you can download several songs for free.
Loving this means, getting it a good rating, right? You'll even find me placing Your Guilty Prize in my 2011 year-list! Meanwhile, as you know, Ezell has left, even moved to the West Coast, and Dicke followed soon after. But in a stroke of luck the Newman brothers met and recruited singer Eliza Brown (who'd arrived in the US from Paris only two months earlier). They immediately started writing new stuff to match her voice, which is said to be more melodic and occasionally Jazzy. A follow-up album is already in the making, with new drummer Mickey Vershbow completing the act. With this freshly reviewed album's material in mind, I cannot help but being apprehensive of the result, and it's with some anticipation that I look out to Plumerai's next outing!
~ Concrete Web

Hotly anticipated by fans previously earned from releases ‘Res Cogitans’ and ‘Without Number’, Boston four-piece Plumerai strike another effective post rock result with ‘Your Guilty Pleasure’, their latest on Silber Records.
Reintroducing listeners to Elizabeth Ezell’s sultry vocals, ‘Strike’ brims with delicate brooding and tight guitar & drum composition, highlighting the level of development and competence the production levels of the band have reached.
Jaunty and melodic, ‘Spinning Landscape’ floats through the air when listened to, smooth and orchestrated to perfection, ‘Empty Graves’ following suit but emphasising a more ethereal, emotive affair with a guitar riff channelling the Madchester sound which gains props in its own right.
‘Painted Faces’ provides yet another stand out track, with guitars and drums playing off the attitude and sensuality of Ezell’s vocal talents, creating a symbiotic link between singer and musician that other bands rarely reach. ‘Your Guilty Prize’ adds to the former with a musical product with such aplomb its surprising to find its cinematic appeal not being exploited in upcoming films.
Bold in its production, striking in its composition, ‘Your Guilty Pleasure’ is easily Plumerai’s best album to date and a fine starting point for anyone who is a fan of female fronted rock (PJ Harvey, Patti Smith) and who, for some ungodly reason, haven’t heard of these guys yet.
Go forth and educate thy selves.
~ Michael Byrne, Left Hip

One of my favorite ways to discover new music is to go to a concert venue website and start clicking on the acts I don't know. That's how I landed at Plumerai who also happens to be a local band that formed in 2004.  The song "Spinning Landscapes" is a dizzying number amplified by the emotive violin that contrasts nicely with the rest of the rock band. Meanwhile, lead singer Elizabeth Ezell's sultry vocals--similar to those of Wye Oak's Jenn Wasner-- guide you through the vertigo on this track. When she sings "all I see before me are spinning landscapes" the instrumentation paints the picture for you, it's perfectly executed.
~ New Music Collaborative

Plumerai is an alternative/rock/postpunk group from Boston that contained one of the craziest vocals I’ve ever heard: Elizabeth Ezell. This band has a technically complicated sound – from folk rhythms to gloomy riffs, sometimes industrial, but definitely magical all the time.
We're presenting you the 2011 album Your Guilty Prize recorded with Elizabeth, who unfortunately left the band afterwards. Her place was taken by Eliza Brown and I really cannot wait to hear what they sound like after the line-up changes. Other band members are: Martin Newman - Guitar; James Newman - Bass; Mickey Vershbow - Drums. However, let's first talk about Your Guilty Prize.
I first heard them several years ago but most of the music in the shape we can hear it now was then still in the making. Now I’m finally able to present the album Your Guilty Prize, released in 2011. A Slower One could easily be featured in one of David Lynch’s movies, with its creepy atmosphere that I longed for so much. Avernal (v3) sounds almost positive, the more powerful parts of the track almost give hope but.. “you’re so far away…”. And then we move on to Empty Graves – which sounds like The Cure. You just cannot wait for it to finally build up.
Spinning Landscapes – I remember this song in a completely different version. It already seduced me back then, but this new edition is… absolutely amazing. So it definitely is my favourite track from this album. Fortunately for me, I’ve got a remixed version somewhere and if you tune in to my shows you’ll definitely hear it not once, not twice.
Such sophisticated sounds, unfortunately, do not happen very often. So if you love gloomy music with seducing female vocals – not checking it out would be a big mistake. They seem to have recorded much more than this and I will do my best to bring it all to ClanBase Radio.
~ Clanbase Radio

I 65daysofstatics che si sposano con i Nouvelle Vague, e li tradiscono con Siouxsie.
Un "indie rock/post-punk" etereo, jazzoso, in "When I come around" e "Spinning Landscape" quasi addirittura neo-vittoriano, psichedelico: questo (e molto altro ancora) si può dire riguardo al sound dei Plumerai, in particolare del loro ultimo "Your Guilty Prize".
Fedeli tanto (ma non troppo) allo stile dark cabaret, che ultimamente imperversa nella scena alternativa, quanto a quello shoegaze '80, questi quattro musicisti da Boston fanno capolino tra le nuove band underground soprattutto grazie alla voce incredibilmente travolgente di Elizabeth Ezell.
L'album decolla dolcemente, struggentemente, con "Strike", dando subito prova della bravura non solo dell'elogiatissima cantante ma di ogni componente del gruppo, e confermando il tutto sempre più ad ogni brano che segue. Violini, sintetizzatori, chitarre acustiche ed elettriche, batteria: l'atmosfera è avvolgente all'inverosimile.
...è davvero difficile commentare ulteriormente.
La capacità di elaborare frasi di senso compiuto è totalmente, e deliziosamente!, distratta da quello che le orecchie stanno ascoltando.
~ Alone Music