Labels: Concurrent
Review by: Andy Malcolm
Oh yes, this is very cool indeed. I knew that this was going to be a superb album from the opening few seconds, the gently persuading guitar that opens this up straight away gave me that funny feeling that all great music does the first time I hear it, and then the fragile vocals break in, and then the guitar all goes crazy and, and… Yes. And straight away you know they love Cap’n Jazz, but that’s Ok, because so do I.
As I’ve already made clear, I hope, opening song “Held by Hands” is a little bit special. And it’s this bands style all in one. The pretty bits, a long with the kind of spazzy hyperactive guitar and drumming. It’s a strange way to structure songs and just seems to really go against any of the rules in making pop music, but do it well, and the results are spectacular. It can take a while to get your head round it. Everything is layered together in a very deliberate way, and it’s up to the listener to poke around in there and piece it together so that it makes sense by the time it reaches the ear. The way the guitars sound at times is distinctly like “Thirty Degrees Everywhere” era Promise Ring, except the Red are doing so much more than just copying the songs off that album.
Occasionally, it does get a little messy, but when you get all the insanely entwining guitars on the likes of “Charity” working together and urging the tune a long you can’t help but get caught up in it all. Song goes from: fast -> screaming -> pretty. Wow. Overall, the bands vocals veer from ever so light and wavering to screamy, and the lyrics are just totally the ones you’d expect.
Erratic, driving, creative emo punk like Cap’n Jazz mixed with some early Promise Ring. I wanna put this on a tape, get a walkman that works, then go get lost somewhere.