A Church That Fits Our Needs starts with a distant piano striking dissonantly and alone. The solitary notes fits the album’s premise, to mourn band-leader Ari Picker’s late mother, but musically the intro contrasts with the album’s lush precision. Picker’s mother committed suicide shortly after his wedding in 2009. His artistic production through Lost in the Trees is decidedly therapeutic in regards to his loss – Picker acknowledges her passing and his music’s attempt to ensconce her memory in interviews and lyrics – but A Church That Fits Our Needs doesn’t need the context of Picker’s mother to succeed with a listener.
Like many great artists before him, Picker has taken the deeply personal and tragic and reinterpreted it into something universal. Lost in the Trees’ brand of orchestral-pop demands technical proficiency. The crescendos that build Picker’s soft croon and gentle guitar to orchestral heights are dense and deft. The orchestration never intrudes thanks to restrained writing and producer Rob Schnapf’s delicate attention to the nuances of Lost in the Trees’ multifaceted sound. Although the inspiration for the album is deeply personal, Picker’s lyrics – sometimes direct and sometimes fantastical – are managed gracefully in the band’s large presence.
Picker’s vulnerable voice and lyrics could easily be swallowed by the spacious orchestration, but instead Picker remains a cool conductor. Lost in the Trees’ swoons and rises are never dissonant in tone or spirit; the band’s sudden movements are like a flock of birds adjusting to the changing wind. They have carved their musical niche well, but Picker still brings in new elements to their established sound. “Golden Eyelids,” the album’s fourth track, repeats a ghostly “sha-la-la-la” that is closer to early soul than classical music; the closing moments are definitely more Sam Cooke than Tchaikovsky or Andrew Bird. “Golden Eyelids” doesn’t summit dramatic peaks like other tracks on the album, but instead it gently floats Picker’s muted-nostalgic lyrics on top of a rolling melody. The song is beautiful and tinged with pain; Picker asks, “Please tell me it’s worth it all.” I think that A Church That Fits Our Needs certainly is.