Labels: Crank
Review by: Andy Malcolm
WOOHOO! A compilation of all things emo. Shouty emo, emo-core, weirdy emo, indie emo, as well as Rod Hull and Emo. Sorry.
18 tracks all told. 70 odd minutes of music to my, and possibly your, ears. The likes of the Promise Ring, Mineral, Christie Front Drive and a whole bunch of hours who’s names meant nothing to me. But never mind, some of them do now.
The Promise Ring’s “Nothing Feels Good” album has become my (cliche warning) soundtrack of the summer, with repeated play and I’ve yet to tire of it. So I was rather pleased to see them contribute my fave track from that, “Pink Chimneys” to this collection. Think of every wussy abjective I’ve ever used on these pages, and they apply to the band and this song. Its too good. Except this version is slightly different – the vocals are less perfect, but its still a quite wonderfully simple and effective song.
Indie emo, and quiet, slower songs make up much of the stuff on here. Silver Scooter submit some Beezewax-esque indiepop emo, that most splendidly dreamy of silly subcategories, and Christie Front Drive contribute the utterly ace “Field”. It starts off all slow and nice, not a vocal in earshot for almost 2 minutes. And when the singer finds his voice, its hidden behind a sudden upturn in noise as the guitars rock on up. Then it all drifts away again as the song disappears off over the horizon into the distance. Boys Life do the same sort of thing on “Sight Unseen”, which starts off as quiet and fragile as imaginable before clanging into some noise. And then there is the strange effort from Mineral that goes on, and on, and on. For almost 6 minutes. Pretty good though.
Sweden’s Fireside do a neat impression of Far with “Headacher”, one of the more emo-core tracks on here. Also impressive are ‘core merchants, “Hot Water Music”, who have a particularly grunty vocalist and a quality tune in “Elektra”. Quite different from much of the other fare on here. But even they are outshouted by the bizarre Drive Like Jehu. Man, this track defines messy, its all over the shop.
Well, whichever way you look at it, this to me is conclusive proof that if the right people get hold of “how to do indie music”, then the results can be truly spectacular.