The Wednesdays "Invisible Youth" CD
[Thorp]
Another slight shift for the ever varied Thorp Records roster with this one, as the trio drops 11 tracks of rocked out punk in less than a half-hour. But while some of their influences are obvious, the end result is interesting in that it's not some total garage rock throwback, it's like a weird combination of that kind of sound with an angular indie edge, so they don't sound generic or anything like that. It's basically a bunch of one- to three-minute tunes that tend to be midpaced and lightly catchy with an air of loosely executed dissonance lingering about, but not to the point where it's a problem, it's sort of an endearing quality with this stuff somehow. "The Kid Who Would Fight Anybody" breaks out some keyboards that I'm not really into, and the same goes for the acoustic accompanied "They'll Hunt Us Down", but I'm way more into faster and more energetic cuts like "Total Nightmare", which would be an amazing punk rock song were the guitar tone fuller and more in your face (more on that later). Elsewhere, "You Cannot Fail" combines a rocked out swagger with jangly harmonics and sweeping octave chords; "Who Decides" almost sounds like the Misfits to some degree in a few areas; and "Sweet Beulah" is somehow darker, also dropping a couple of blatant 70's rock dual guitar parts that ain't half bad and certainly give this track its own vibe against everything else herein. The production definitely has a raw edge to it, but I'm gonna guess that was totally intentional since they seem to be pretty inspired by a dated sound, and it works for what they're doing. I'd like to hear a little more definition to the bass, and the vocals are maybe a hint out front due to the panning of the guitar parts, but that's not a big deal. Overall it sounds pretty good, but the guitars ought to be louder or a little more distorted. Clearly they're not going for a heavy sound, and they probably want to retain a certain bite to the guitar presence, which I agree with, but... too often the guitar parts are slightly overshadowed, so... there's a little room for tweaking. The layout keeps it simple with a minimal color scheme and mostly text, so it's not all that much to look at, but I've seen plenty worse. The lyrics tend to be quirky in the manner in which they hint at various topics, but refuse to be to straightforward about anything: "You say it's Christmas time. But you bite like Halloween. You say it's jingle bells. But it rings like the cash register machine. Dollar signs in your lifeless eyes. Burns red in your empty head..." Not bad overall, and I could easily see this band winning me over in the future. They definitely ought to forego the keyboards, though. Pretty much every song that brings in the keys is sort of weak, and I can't really hang with that stuff, especially when some of the other tracks are so much stronger through and through. Not bad, though. (6/10)
Running time - 24:45, Tracks: 11
[Notable tracks: You Cannot Fail, Who Decides, Total Nightmare]
Thorp Records - http://www.thorprecords.com

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