''Held in Splendor'' is the second

studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

by American

psychedelic Psychedelics are a subclass of hallucinogenic drugs whose primary effect is to trigger non-ordinary states of consciousness (known as psychedelic experiences or "trips").Pollan, Michael (2018). ''How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of ...

indie rock Indie rock is a Music subgenre, subgenre of rock music that originated in the United States, United Kingdom and New Zealand from the 1970s to the 1980s. Originally used to describe independent record labels, the term became associated with the mu ...

band

Quilt A quilt is a multi-layered textile, traditionally composed of two or more layers of fabric or fiber. Commonly three layers are used with a filler material. These layers traditionally include a woven cloth top, a layer of batting or wadding, a ...

on January 28, 2014, on

Mexican Summer Mexican Summer is an independent record label founded in 2009 by Keith Abrahamsson and Andres Santo Domingo. Based in Brooklyn, New York, the label has released recordings from artists including Best Coast, Kurt Vile, Ariel Pink, Allah-Las, Weye ...

Background and recording

By the start of 2013, the band had developed plans to begin recording a follow-up. Anna Fox Rochinski explained that while there was a strong collaborative aspect to their music for this album they brought in 'finished' songs as well. That was a first for us. John and Shane and I all sing and write songs, and I think the album is a very good mix of our individuality and togetherness as a cohesive piece'.Cheri Amour,
Interview - Anna Fox Rochinski
''The Girls Are Magazine'', February 19, 2014. They began rehearsing the material at ''The Puritan Garage'' in

Charlestown, Boston Charlestown is the oldest Neighborhoods in Boston, neighborhood in Boston, Boston, Massachusetts, in the United States. Originally called Mishawum by the Massachusett tribe, it is located on a peninsula north of the Charles River, across from dow ...

. Quilt also teamed up with fellow Bostonians MMOSS to produce a split EP 'New Hampshire Freaks' which was released in April 2013. In April 2013, the band moved to New York City to begin recording at the

in-house studio together with producer

Jarvis Taveniere Woods or The Woods may refer to: Common meanings * Woodland * Forest * Wood, solid material from trees or shrubs Places United States * Woods, Kentucky * Woods, Oregon * Woods, a municipality in Liberty County, Florida * The Woods, a nei ...

. They spent a month recording 'invited friends who added saxophone and violin, cello and steel guitar'."earbuddy"
Nick Krennon, 'Quilt – “Arctic Shark”, ''Earbuddy.net'', October 9, 2013. Butler explained how the experience of 'having the studio, demoing the songs and knowing each other better as musicians helped make that happen'. Their second studio album ''Held in Splendor'' was released on January 28, 2014.

Tour

During the album's recording, the band continued to play live shows and had embarked on their first headlining tour in October 2013 in support of the single 'Arctic Shark', released in the same month. The band added Keven Lareau on bass for the headlining tour that followed.
Luke O’Neil, 'Quilt is a patchwork of sounds', ''Boston Globe'', February 20, 2014 They suffered a setback when their tour van crashed in March."Van crash"
Michael Marotta, 'Difficult Stitch-uation: Quilt lose tour van in highway crash, reach out to fans for help' ''Boston news'', March 17, 2014. The band spent the rest of 2014 touring North America and Europe.

Critical reception

''Held in Splendor'' received favorable reviews from contemporary music critics. At

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an

average In ordinary language, an average is a single number taken as representative of a list of numbers, usually the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are in the list (the arithmetic mean). For example, the average of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 7, ...

score of 74, based on 14 reviews, which indicates "generally favorable reviews".

Track listing

References

{{Authority control 2014 albums Quilt (band) albums Mexican Summer albums