| Lineage | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | January 31, 2012 | |||
| Length | 29:04 | |||
| Label | Ghostly International | |||
| Producer | Zachary Saginaw | |||
| Shigeto chronology | ||||
| ||||
Lineage is a mini-album by American musician Zachary Shigeto Saginaw under the mononym Shigeto. It was released on January 31, 2012, through Ghostly International. It received generally favorable reviews from critics. [1]
Zachary Shigeto Saginaw, known mononymously as Shigeto, is an American musician originally from Ann Arbor, Michigan. [2] Lineage is a follow-up to his debut studio album, Full Circle (2010), and is a mini-album consisting of eight songs. [3] After finishing Full Circle, he bought a Rhodes piano, a kalimba, a harp, a Moog synthesizer, and percussive instruments. [4] In a 2012 interview, he said, "[I am] trying to focus on building my studio, focusing on acoustic instruments or just hardware, rather than buying new MIDI pads." [4]
Shigeto is a Japanese American. [5] His grandparents and great-grandparents were sent to the internment camps during World War II, after the attack on Pearl Harbor. [4] The album's front cover features a photograph of his great-grandfather's house in Hiroshima, circa 1916. [6] Its back cover features a photograph of the said man, taken at the Amache Internment Camp in Granada, Colorado, during the internment of Japanese Americans. [6]
Shigeto later released an EP, Huron River Drive (2012), which includes remixes of the song "Huron River Drive" by Evenings, Sun Hammer, Braille, and Sun Glitters. [7] [8]
| Aggregate scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| Metacritic | 66/100 [1] |
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Pitchfork | 6.8/10 [6] |
| PopMatters | 6/10 [9] |
| Resident Advisor | 3.5/5 [10] |
According to the review aggregator Metacritic , Lineage received "generally favorable reviews" based on a weighted average score of 66 out of 100 from 4 critic scores. [1]
Vincent Pollard of Exclaim! stated, "Despite the different styles explored, from hip-hop to funk and folk, the jazz influence and carefully restrained sound palette hold it together as a fully cohesive album throughout its 29-minute lifespan." [4] He added, "With its hypnotic loops and acoustic percussion, this great downtempo record, at times, calls to mind a looser, dreamier Teebs, with the melodic sense of early Four Tet." [4] Sam Louis of Resident Advisor stated, "In contrast to his aforementioned contemporaries [Teebs and Shlohmo], Shigeto's Lineage feels more full-bodied and cohesive, even if the sound palette is similar in many ways." [10]
Duncan Cooper of The Fader stated, "While the internment camp artwork suggests Saginaw is unpacking some deep darkness, the album's perfectly serene." [11] Larry Fitzmaurice of Pitchfork commented that "Lineage's clean style and easily admirable sound might seem refreshing when taken into context with the teeming pot of acid-stained, bunk-bed J Dilla imitators that continue to clog up RSS feeds with poorly-tagged MP3s and 1980s-sitcom-referencing artwork, but the fact of the matter is that Lineage isn't the first record to sound like Lineage." [6] Benjamin Aspray of PopMatters called Lineage "a step back for Shigeto in an apparent attempt at progress." [9] He added, "The relative rawness of Full Circle has been streamlined seemingly in the interest of dexterity and a mellower mood, with the effect of eliminating some of that earlier album's subtle power." [9]
All tracks are written by Zachary Saginaw.
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Lineage (Prologue)" | 2:55 |
| 2. | "Lineage" | 3:08 |
| 3. | "Ann Arbor Part 3 & 4" | 4:21 |
| 4. | "Soaring" | 3:38 |
| 5. | "A Child's Mind" | 4:14 |
| 6. | "Huron River Drive" | 2:39 |
| 7. | "Field Day" | 4:17 |
| 8. | "Please Stay" | 3:52 |
| Total length: | 29:04 | |
Credits adapted from liner notes. [12]