The Wailing Wall is primarily a solo artist, Jesse Rifkin, who grabs a bunch of his friends to play with him on this here album. There are a lot of good acoustic guitar and banjo parts and the whole project is very eclectic, with there also being piano, viola, trumpet, accordion and the like. It’s all woven together very well and reminiscent of the Microphones or Akron/Family, but better. The lyrics seem to deal with God frequently, but maybe due to my background, it didn’t really bother me that much. It’s got a great festive vibe at times, like an indie rock jam band. Other times, it’s just downright sincere and honest in its delivery. You really can’t ask for more than that.
–kurt (Self-released, www.myspace.com/jesserifkin)