The first few times i listened to this album i thought i was listening to the Garden State Soundtrack. That's not neccessarily a bad thing. This album pulls off the same deft mixture of energy and pensive introspection as that compilation. But as nice and comforting as that is, you can't quite help but feel like you've heard most of this stuff before.
The opening track "Bird on a Wire" is probably my favorite. The verses are caustic and jarring, just a little off key and deliberately sloppy. They sound like Modest Mouse when that band drifts towards its more melodic tendencies. But then the chorus kicks in, and this perfectly distorted guitar comes up from the background, and its just so slick and poppy. A perfectly executed hook. Which, by design, is not something you find on indie emo albums.
The following track "Publish my Love" is just as good. And though the chorus is just plain silly the arrangement of the band is perfect. There's a driving rock back beat to the intro and verse, and then they back off and riff over the chorus. Its like the first song in reverse, and if you haven't noticed yet, i get off on contrast. Which this album is full of.
"California" is another pick. Not only becuase its a great example of this group stripping down to just the bare elements for a nice old fashioned acoustic ballad. But also because any song that opens with the lyric "screw california" is tops in my book. Really, the rest of the song could have been them farting on the guitar saying "screw california." Although the deep church hall reverb on the vocals that exists throughout the record becomes most prominant here, and its not bad so much as it is awkward since the guitar is almost completely dry.
I could talk about every song on this album. What i like and don't like. Which should say something in and of itself i guess. Even the stuff i don't like is interesting enough to listen to and talk about. This is definitely worth checking out if you are into this laid back yet energetic music that seems to have come to define twenty something self-awareness. At some point this stuff is going to start sounding old. But i've listened to this album about six times in the last three days, and it hasn't yet.
8/10
The opening track "Bird on a Wire" is probably my favorite. The verses are caustic and jarring, just a little off key and deliberately sloppy. They sound like Modest Mouse when that band drifts towards its more melodic tendencies. But then the chorus kicks in, and this perfectly distorted guitar comes up from the background, and its just so slick and poppy. A perfectly executed hook. Which, by design, is not something you find on indie emo albums.
The following track "Publish my Love" is just as good. And though the chorus is just plain silly the arrangement of the band is perfect. There's a driving rock back beat to the intro and verse, and then they back off and riff over the chorus. Its like the first song in reverse, and if you haven't noticed yet, i get off on contrast. Which this album is full of.
"California" is another pick. Not only becuase its a great example of this group stripping down to just the bare elements for a nice old fashioned acoustic ballad. But also because any song that opens with the lyric "screw california" is tops in my book. Really, the rest of the song could have been them farting on the guitar saying "screw california." Although the deep church hall reverb on the vocals that exists throughout the record becomes most prominant here, and its not bad so much as it is awkward since the guitar is almost completely dry.
I could talk about every song on this album. What i like and don't like. Which should say something in and of itself i guess. Even the stuff i don't like is interesting enough to listen to and talk about. This is definitely worth checking out if you are into this laid back yet energetic music that seems to have come to define twenty something self-awareness. At some point this stuff is going to start sounding old. But i've listened to this album about six times in the last three days, and it hasn't yet.
8/10