Skylines Track Listing:
01. When My Ship Comes In
02. Blue Moon On The Rise
03. I Will Not Leave You Alone
04. Sundrenched
05. Anchors Away
06. Sweetheart
07. Aerial View
08. Tonight You Belong To Me
09. Springtime
10. Coast Starlight
Released: July 5, 2005
Skylines is the debut record from North Atlantic Explorers. It’s a beautiful, engaging and sonically stimulating record flavoured with strings, horns, loops, samples, vibes, xylophones, banjo, upright bass and vintage organs and pianos, with Glenn D’Cruze handling the songwriting and much of the instrumentation including lead vocals, guitars, drums and piano.
Glenn teamed up with an ensemble of players and co-producer Jonathan Anderson (Andy Shauf, Teen Daze) at Jonathan’s Buena Vista Audio studio where songs were lushly layered while others were stripped down to a more subtle and understated form. Some songs were scrapped altogether, others went through many incarnations being abandoned and re-invented several times over. Working out of Jonathan’s own studio gave Glenn and Jonathan the ability to explore and experiment with no obligation to commit to anything that didn’t feel right, and enabled them to spend as long as necessary for the exploration process. It also gave Glenn, known for being extremely meticulous, the luxury of obsessing over each and every minute detail.
Skylines contains hypnotic eight minute epics (When My Ship Comes In, Anchors Away), 1930’s style ballads (Sweetheart), swirly futuristic tracks (Aerial View), lazy, spacious country (Blue Moon On The Rise), atmospheric instrumentals (Sundrenched, Coast Starlight), and multi-layered orchestration (Springtime) reminiscent of Procol Harum’s “A Whiter Shade of Pale.” The album also includes an endearing version of “Tonight You Belong To Me” originally sung by Steve Martin and Bernadette Peters in “The Jerk” and a rendition of Lloyd Cole’s “I Will Not Leave You Alone” described by Cole himself as “lovely.”