Hmmm... I'm torn on this. Two girls and two guys sharing duties in this rather unique indie rock outfit whose songs range from your usual three-and-a-half minutes to a whopping eight minutes, covering all kinds of rhythmic material that's heavy on the bass and drums while quirkier guitar parts that are equal portions melodic and jarring wander overhead, with tons of slow moodiness seeping in and creating great atmospheric qualities. I do love the recording, I'll give it that right off the bat. The drums are warm and natural and have a great snap, the bass is ultra thick and pounds away in a very dominant fashion, and the guitars are clear in their use of mid-grade distortion or faintly rugged clean tones. The vocals can be mixed a little loud at times but the instruments all sound awesome against one another. Writing-wise there are a lot of drawn out instrumental passages to the songs, with the percussion getting pretty powerful and littered with fills, while the guitars can lean towards noisier chords with faster picking. But there are plenty of more tangible angular riffs as well, not to mention some flat out rock 'n' roll at times. And that's cool, because I actually like the music more than the vocals. There's one male and one female vocalist, with both singing and shouting taking place, but the singing isn't really doing much for me. The guy can sing better than the girl, whose vocal approach is a little irritating without being over the top, but a stronger vocal performance would really benefit the music a lot. I don't really dislike the vocals, but a lot of the dissonant riffing and winding picking patterns are really in line with the kind of stuff that I like from these styles of music, so even though I can understand the vocals "fitting" with this style, I still don't find them to be optimal. "Coping in a Modern World" is slower and much darker in large part, sans landing on some repetitive layered riffs (which are sadly less powerful than the rather moody preceding moments and most of what follows, disrupting an otherwise awesome song); as is "Curing the Remedy", which gets a lot quieter and lets the rhythm section carry most of the weight behind the vocals. "I Heard Somebody Bombed Somebody Somewhere" has a few driving tempos and thicker chords that lend a slightly more aggressive feel to the playing and come across as incredibly effective, and the harmonics that play against the dense basslines are also great, so those are angles that I'd love to see them explore further (sadly there are some annoying little runs in this one that also detract from its overall force). The disc is housed in a nice matte gatefold chipboard digipack with two-color printing in shades of brown. Most of the text is handwritten, so things are simple but attractive. Lyrically the material is pretty abstract in phrasing and flow, and I actually quite enjoy that here: "Does a reason resist the cause and can you explain it to me do the seasons apply the laws through which we will see suggestions poke prod receive professions dope dodge release..." This is an interesting disc. I actually want to like it more than I do because its finer moments are really awesome, but the overall lack of enthusiasm in the vocal performances and some of the musical hang-ups are just enough to hold it back a touch. Not bad, though. There's a lot to work with here, and the band is indeed shooting for their own kind of sound.
[Lookalive]
Running time - 39:14, Tracks: 7
[Notable tracks: Coping in a Modern World, Curing the Remedy, I Heard Somebody Bombed Somebody Somewhere]
Lookalive Records - http://www.lookaliverecords.com
