Natives bring the hammer on ‘Manor’

“Gorilla Manor,” the debut album from Los Angeles’ Local Natives, shows incredible promise through this beautifully composed and musically rich album. Especially noteworthy are the layered and harmonized vocals that expand the range of sound 10-fold. The vocals on this album are similar and comparable to the vocal style of Fleet Foxes.

The musicianship shown throughout “Manor” is impressive, as each piece of this five-piece band reveals its expertise and knowledge of its instruments. There were very noticeable instances of jazz and folk influences throughout. The uncharacteristically poppy “Who Knows Who Cares” highlights brilliantly catchy melodies, creative use of strings and horns and amazing drum beats.  

With this album, Local Natives take many aspects of popular music from different genres — mainly jazz, jazz-fusion, folk, indie and punk — and fuse them together to create a complex and unique sound. “Manor” is simply beautiful and hopefully we will have the chance to hear more of the Local Natives in the future.