Get There (Minor Alps album)

{{Use mdy dates|date=June 2020}} {{Infobox album | name = Get There | type = Studio | artist = Minor Alps (band)<br/ >Juliana Hatfield<br/ >Matthew Caws | cover = Get There (Minor Alps album - cover art).jpg | alt = | released = {{Start date|2013|10|29}} | recorded = Hoboken, New Jersey | venue = | studio = | genre = Pop rock | length = {{Duration|m=40|s=5}} | label = Barsuk Records | producer = | prev_title = | prev_year = | next_title = | next_year = }}

'''''Get There''''' is a studio album collaboration by American singer-songwriter Juliana Hatfield and Matthew Caws (lead singer of the band Nada Surf) under the band name '''Minor Alps'''. It was released on October 29, 2013, by Barsuk Records.

==Background== Juliana Hatfield and Matthew Caws, friends and infrequent collaborators since the early 1990s—they met at some Nada Surf shows<ref name=Paste-MinorAlp /><ref name=RS-TeamUp>{{cite news|last=Cubarrubia|first=RJ|title=Juliana Hatfield, Nada Surf's Matthew Caws Team Up in Minor Alps|url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/juliana-hatfield-nada-surfs-matthew-caws-team-up-in-minor-alps-20130812|accessdate=October 31, 2013|newspaper=Rolling Stone|date=August 12, 2013}}</ref>—decided to form a band together and work on a project that is this resulting record.

The name of the band, Minor Alps, is a reference to the location of a cottage Caws' parents owned in France near Mont Ventoux.<ref name=Paste-MinorAlp /><ref name=RS-TeamUp /> Caws described the mountain as a "minor alp" to a friend, and the expression stuck in his mind. "In the tradition of Iron Butterfly or Led Zeppelin, band names that contain contradictions, we chose Minor Alps—humble mountains," said Caws.<ref name=WorldCafe-MHill>{{cite web|last=Hill|first=Michael|title=WXPN Welcomes Minor Alps (Matthew Caws of Nada Surf and Juliana Hatfield)|url=http://tickets.worldcafelive.com/event/344985-minor-alps-matthew-caws-nada-philadelphia/|work=World Cafe Live|accessdate=October 31, 2013|archive-date=November 2, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131102015521/http://tickets.worldcafelive.com/event/344985-minor-alps-matthew-caws-nada-philadelphia/|url-status=dead}}</ref>

==Recording== Hatfield and Caws co-wrote the record and sung on all of the songs together. They also played all of the instruments with the exception of drums and programming, which were supplied by Parker Kindred (Joan As Police Woman, Antony and the Johnsons, second Jeff Buckley record, The Friends (with Sammy James Junior of Mooney Suzuki)) and Chris Egan (Say Hi To Your Mom, Computer Magic, Solange).<ref name=Paste-MinorAlp>{{cite news|last=Kane|first=Tyler|title=Juliana Hatfield, Nada Surf's Matthew Caws Form Minor Alps|url=http://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2013/08/juliana-hatfield-nada-surfs-matthew-caws-form-mino.html|accessdate=October 31, 2013|newspaper=Paste Magazine|date=August 12, 2013}}</ref> Egan used a Roland TR-909 drum machine from the late 1980s to provide percussion.<ref name=Diffuser-int>{{cite web|last=Levith|first=Will|title=Minor Alps, Major Chops: Juliana Hatfield and Matthew Caws of Nada Surf Discuss Their New 'Soft Goth' Band|url=http://diffuser.fm/minor-alps-interview-2013/|work=Diffuser.fm|accessdate=November 2, 2013}}</ref> The record was co-produced by Tom Beaujour, in Hoboken, New Jersey.<ref name=RS-TeamUp />

==Cover album artwork== Photographer Tyler Coray<ref name=Coray>{{cite web|title=minor alps – Tyler Coray|url=http://www.tcoray.com/minor-alps|work=Tyler Matthew Coray|accessdate=November 25, 2013|archive-date=June 6, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140606004832/http://www.tcoray.com/minor-alps|url-status=dead}}</ref> took the photograph on the cover of the record. Design and layout by Derek Vander Griend.<ref name=Paste-MinorAlp /><ref name=RS-TeamUp /><ref name=DerekVanderGriend>{{cite web|title=Minor Alps|url=http://dvandergriend.com/#/minor-alps/|work=The Creative Basement of Derek Vander Griend|accessdate=November 25, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131202225010/http://dvandergriend.com/#/minor-alps/|archive-date=December 2, 2013|url-status=dead}}</ref>

==Video== Julie Gayet appears in the music video for "Waiting For You."

==Release== The record was released by Barsuk in the United States, Ye Olde Records in the United Kingdom/European Union, Stop Start Records in Australia, Only in Dreams in Japan, and Inker in Brazil.<ref name=NS-MAlps>{{cite web|last=Caws|first=Matthew|title=Introducing Minor Alps|url=http://www.nadasurf.com/2013/08/introducing-minor-alps/|work=NadaSurf.com|accessdate=October 31, 2013|date=August 12, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131102222150/http://www.nadasurf.com/2013/08/introducing-minor-alps/|archive-date=November 2, 2013|url-status=dead}}</ref>

==Reception== {{Music ratings | MC = 81/100<ref name="MC">{{Metacritic album|title=accessdate=November 1, 2013}}</ref> | rev1 = ''Allmusic'' | rev1Score = {{Rating|4|5}}<ref name="AMG">{{cite web |first=Mark |last=Deming |title=Review: ''Minor Alps'' |url={{AllMusic|class=album|id=mw0002583856|pure_url=yes}} |publisher=Allmusic |accessdate=November 1, 2013}}</ref> }} The album was generally met with positive evaluations from critics. In Metacritic site it holds a score of 81 which means "Universal acclaim".<ref name="MC"/> Allmusic granted the album 4 stars out of 5, noting it was "a collaboration in the best sense of the word, with the two musicians bringing out the best in one another, their individual strengths coming together in a set of smart, well-crafted performances."<ref name="AMG"/>

''Rolling Stone'' characterized the music as "mostly reflective and intimate" with the two "harmonizing over fragile electronics and unobtrusive acoustic guitars."<ref name=RS-Debut>{{cite news|last=Reed|first=Ryan|title=Matthew Caws, Juliana Hatfield Debut New Band Minor Alps – Premiere|url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/matthew-caws-juliana-hatfield-debut-new-band-minor-alps-premiere-20131022|accessdate=October 31, 2013|newspaper=Rolling Stone|date=October 22, 2013}}</ref> NPR music writer and editor Stephen Thompson said that Hatfield and Caws "together they have a very light, agreeable touch that to me is incredibly appealing."<ref name=H&N-MAlps>{{cite news|last=Chakrabarti|first=Meghna|title=Juliana Hatfield And Matthew Caws Unite As 'Minor Alps'|url=http://hereandnow.wbur.org/2013/08/26/minor-alps-band|accessdate=October 31, 2013|newspaper=WBUR / NPR|date=August 26, 2013|location=Here and Now|format=Audio interview}}</ref>

BrooklynVegan described the record as "appealingly mellow pop, with arpeggiated guitars, gentle electronics, and the occasional melotron. Mostly, though, it's about Caws and Hatfield's voices which sound pretty great together."<ref name=BV-MAlps>{{cite news|last=Pearls|first=Bill|title=Juliana Hatfield & Nada Surf's Matthew Caws are Minor Alps, album and tour this fall (dates)|url=http://www.brooklynvegan.com/archives/2013/08/juliana_hatfiel_1.html|accessdate=October 31, 2013|newspaper=BrooklynVegan|date=August 12, 2013}}</ref>

''American Songwriter'', while calling the project an "oddly named sympathetic collaboration," said that "each tune blending into the next with little for the listener to hang on to beyond the overall gauzy mood" was "somewhat bland and forgettable."<ref name=AmSong-MA>{{cite news|last=Horowitz|first=Hal|title=Minor Alps: Get There|url=http://www.americansongwriter.com/2013/10/minor-alps-get/|accessdate=October 31, 2013|newspaper=American Songwriter|date=October 28, 2013}}</ref>

==Track listing== {{track listing |title1=Buried Plans |length1=2:16 |title2=I Don't Know What to Do with My Hands |length2=3:54 |title3=Far from the Roses |length3=4:06 |title4=If I Wanted Trouble |length4=3:51 |title5=Maxon |length5=2:53 |title6=Wish You Were Upstairs |length6=3:12 |title7=Mixed Feelings |length7=2:23 |title8=Radio Static |length8=3:31 |title9=Lonely Low |length9=3:43 |title10=Waiting for You |length10=5:10 |title11=Away Again |length11=5:04 |total_length=40:03 }}

==References== {{reflist}}

==External links== * [http://minoralps.tumblr.com/ Official site] * [http://www.barsuk.com/w3.cgi?vwy=artists/minoralps Minor Alps] at Barsuk Records

{{DEFAULTSORT:Get There}} Category:2013 albums Category:Barsuk Records albums