This. Is. Frustrating. Thisyearsmodel almost have it. The first minute and a half of the CD is all minimal, twinkling guitars, with effective spoken vocals – and I was expecting the band to shift into September style screamo at any moment. But instead, the song finishes, and we are treated to the rest of the CD. And on the rest of the CD they are playing melodic hardcore with modern ’emo’ tinges. Raspy vocals, and bouncy melodies drive the music a long, and it pretty much sounds like Braid and Hot Water Music have been bashed into each other so that their component parts somehow got, well, bonded. Like a freaky molecule – H2OBr. Don’t worry, this compound is extremely safe and stable.
They have lots of generic components, such as whiney backing vocals every now and again, and pretty predictable song structures. They are also prone to playing boring straight-forward hardcore that falls flat on it’s face for me. “Next Atlantis” rumbles a long and fails to ignite properly, despite sparking into more appealing and catchy melodies on the chorus.
When does it get good? Well, “Western Star” ebbs and flows with it’s mid-western emo sounds (some early Promise Ring going on here), and making use of the talky vocals that build into Navio Forge-esque screams to incredible effect. Best song on here by a long shot. “Toys R Us Kids” makes a good fist of things, with a superb opening minute and a half that does the September thing again, but unfortunately it descends the pit into shitty hardcore-rock. Why? Guess they can’t play that intricate old school stuff.
Grrrr.