Slow Coming Day "Farewell to the Familiar" CD
[Tooth & Nail]
This is solid emo/indie rock from California that, as is often the case, balances lush clean passages with distorted chords and constant singing vocals to create relatively laidback tracks that range from somewhat somber and quiet to a bit louder and more energetic. It's not what I would deem poppy or catchy per se, but it is memorable to a degree. It's not strikingly original, but it doesn't bring any bands to mind for me, which is nice. It just sort of falls into this general style of music. There's not a ton of variety, but every song doesn't feel like a repeat of its predecessor either. So they're working around some fine lines and pulling it off without any real problems. That's not to say a bit more diversity or slightly more of a catchy edge wouldn't help, but they're definitely working towards that with the powerful choruses of tracks like "A Part of Me Died". I also really dig their careful and restrained uses of acoustic guitars and electronic textures, as they really add something somewhat unusual to the material. Especially in the quiet vocals and electronics driven introduction to "The Room Without Walls" (which also displays some beautiful vocal harmonies that I'd love to hear explored further). The same can be said for "Family Ties", which unloads a really forceful chorus as well as some emotional passages driven by thick keyboards, pulsating bass, mild clean guitars, and vocals. The recording is perfect in my opinion. There are a lot of subtleties going on in the mix with a lot of layering and stereo panning, and the great level of detail and clarity lets everything come to the surface. The guitars are always bright, the bass is dense but still punchy, the percussion is dead on, and the vocals are mixed perfectly - so the smooth, relaxed singing style slides right into the compositions as it should. They also experiment with a lot of different tones and textures on the instruments, especially the guitars, and that's cool, because certain songs have their own flare. As usual when it comes to this label's releases the visual presentation is great. Everything is done on matte paper and there are tons of landscape photos and such that use hyper saturated colors to create an interesting appeal, along with some subtle textures overlapping them as well. All of the text is tight and consistent, making things easy to read, etc. The lyrics are vague and personal, seemingly leaving things open for interpretation in most regards. "Sit back and watch this dream you call your life quickly pass you by and know this was wasted time. And take a look in the mirror and tell me who have I become? I know that I don't care. I know that I don't care. Recollect these thoughts you hold inside this cage and they'll come to find you out and know this was wasted time. And take a look in the mirror and tell me who have I become? I know that I don't care. I know that I don't care. And know that each lie will find you out." Not too shabby. There are some songs that I could do without, but they've arranged things well so that there aren't any lulls - if there's a dull song or two, they're spaced out between tracks that stand out more and keep up the continuity. If you're down with this stuff give this one a shot. It's not essential, but it is enjoyable. (7/10)
Running time - 44:08, Tracks: 12
[Notable tracks: Captivated, A Part of Me Died, Family Ties]
Tooth & Nail Records - http://www.toothandnail.com

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