Here's the debut full-length from this new band that features ex-members of This Day Forward, Saosin, and Taken.? They're definitely comparable to some of their labelmates as well, which isn't to say that they lack innovation, because that's a false statement, it's just that their brand of somewhat spacey and modernized indie rock is definitely a little unusual.? I haven't heard all of their past bands, but I wouldn't really tie this to what This Day Forward was doing, so I'll note that for past fans of that particular act.? Expect high-pitched singing that delivers a forceful performance over a musical backdrop that tends to swirl around with lots of lush effects and switch up frequently from ethereal clean passages and droning guitar textures to noisier layers of chords and intense picking patterns, among other approaches.? It's definitely a dynamic record that moves around a lot within its given niche of sound.? When combined with the "out there" mentality of the music, the vocal stylings definitely play a role in drawing comparisons to The Mars Volta, but this material is much less over the top all around.? The songs average three to four minutes, the singing is a little more controlled and tangible, and much of the music flows quite well and has kind of a modern alternative rock twist to it, but I don't view that as a negative connotation at all.? The drummer's fucking incredible and definitely plays a significant role in amping up the energy level of some of the material with shitloads of wild fills and patterns that jump all over the place and make the most of the breathing room provided (see the awesome "Stop the Car", for example). I'm absolutely loving that shit! "Act Appalled" is among the more powerful tracks and has the most outright forceful chorus on the entire disc; "In Fear and Faith" has a damn solid vocal performance that really adds a lot of active force to a relatively smooth composition; and some of the riffing in "Always Getting What You Want" is a little darker and heavier as well, almost flirting with a fucked up sort of stoner rock thread beneath the surface. The general consistency of the record does cause certain areas to be less interesting or memorable than others, but they tend to well place shorter and more rocked out tunes like "Oh, Hello" to kick things in the ass when it's needed most. And make no mistake, none of these songs are weak at all. Far from it, in fact. After several minutes of dead air there's a slick unlisted track built around softly spoken/sung vocals and sparse instrumentation that has a weird kind of watery jazz edge to it, and I actually like this passage way more than the actual content that makes up official closer "Meet Me in Montauk", so it's sort of a strange and unfortunate case that you've gotta skip some blank space to get there. Go figure. The production is damn good. I don't think I have any complaints at all. The vocals feel sort of loud sometimes but that's because it's in the nature of high-pitched singing to break through like that. All of the instrumentation sounds thick and dense and there are a lot of beautiful sounds working together throughout the disc. I love the drum sound, the bass is ultra thick, and the different guitar textures tend to remain clear and definitely carry most of the load throughout the album. It sounds almost shockingly pristine, so I really enjoy the sound quality. The artwork kind of looks like illustrations to a strange children's book or something, which is especially effective on the front cover. The actual packaging has very little text on the outside, leaving the sleeve box that houses it for the tracklist and such. Lyrically the material mostly seems to revolve around abstract personal affairs. Nothing hits me at all, but it's cool that they're at least leaving things open and straying from generic devices. "To make them drink. Tell them that it's only water. No one leaves till we figure this out. Patience, both we and our words are overproduced. By influence." I'm not floored by this disc, but the band is certainly quite good, and no doubt on the road to bigger and better things. They're definitely impressive musicians (the drummer's seriously a god damn lunatic), and I'm actually pretty curious to see where they're gonna end up. This is promising stuff. Worth checking out, for sure.
[Equal Vision]
Running time - 45:00 (approximately), Tracks: 11
[Notable tracks: Act Appalled, In Fear and Faith, Stop the Car, Oh, Hello, and the unlisted track]
Equal Vision Records - http://www.equalvision.com
