Ahhh, now this hits the spot.? The best release to date from this excellent and ever improving emo/indie rock outfit.? Their style is still driven by clean guitars and really smooth singing, but thankfully they've started to spice things up with more vocal harmonies, and the recording quality has taken a noticeable step up as well.? Everything is really bright, with a good sense of density and natural warmth, and it's not over polished either.? So they retain a little of that dry airiness that's becoming of a lot of indie rock staples, while still being able to delve into some lush effects and still keep things sounding crisp and clear.? I wish some of the distorted guitars were mixed a little louder in songs like "Burning Hearts Have Been Burned Out Tonight" in order to provide more of an impactful shift in dynamics, but it's of little concern in the long run.? The songwriting tends to be somber and slow paced, hitting on some jangly riffing at times, but tending to go for a sparse approach that gives things plenty of breathing room.? It's definitely leaning towards the moodier and more depressing side of things, but not in a way that sounds forced or overdramatic.? Just take the male/female vocal harmonies in "We Can Fall Outside Into the Busy Night" delivering the line, "Facedown in a ditch instead of in my arms," without flinching, just prior to entering a slightly noisier passage with faint distortion.? Several of the tracks are effectively accented by piano as well, with a select few bringing in some cello, and oddly enough some of the instrumentals such as opener "A Greater Love is Still Unknown" and "Lowlife" are my favorite tracks herein, since the band is truly able to capture a lot of emotion with music alone.? Among the longer tracks (which are both impressively interesting throughout) is the seven-minute "5.18.80", which gets a little more intense with the vocal lines and layering of different instrumentation, not to mention effectively moving between variations and moods without losing any force.? "Winter Blues for the Holidays" runs barely shy of nine minutes and tosses in some harmonics and droning sustained notes that really ebb and flow gracefully in the distance.? Not bad.? Overall the layout looks good, but the front and back covers are more effective than the inner pages, which seem more chaotic and slapped together.? I like the handwritten text (Some lyrics?) inside, but the imagery on the inner spread isn't as intriguing as the layered textures and subtler coloring used elsewhere.? No big deal, though.? This band really deserves more attention.? Had they been putting this stuff out 10 years ago they'd definitely have been pretty revered by fans of the style, because this definitely reminds me a lot of the type of emo I was digging as I was "growing up" or whatever - which is to say that it's a lot stronger than most of what gets tagged as "emo" by today's standards.? It's the kind of stuff that makes for relaxed, chilled out listening sessions - "emotional" with actual feeling, not just melody, and without falling back on a "catchy" form of songwriting or anything. They're well on the way to unleashing their masterpiece, so I hope they keep at it. It wouldn't hurt to push for a little more overall variation from piece to piece ("5.18.80" is a prime example of the band's finest attributes at work), but there's some great material here, and they've continued to improve with each new release. Nicely done.
[Oneohfive]
Running time - 54:45, Tracks: 11
[Notable tracks: A Greater Love is Still Unknown, Lowlife, 5.18.80, Winter Blues for the Holidays]
Oneohfive Records - http://www.oneohfive.com
