City of Ships - Live Free or Don't Tour - LP (2008)

Labels: Forcefield
Review by: Andy Malcolm

What the heck is this? It is like Envy gone grunge or something? A bizarre mix of soaring post rock riffs and then suddenly it’s some sore throated guy honking over shit that you can flail your hair to. The vocals are insanely cheesey, but I am feeling that I am actually getting something out of this, even if I am not certain that I should be.

If you like to mosh slowly to big sounding tunes, then this will probably be right up your alley. The music is culled from two EPs, and has wound up on a rather extravagant looking piece of vinyl, if you’re the kind of goldfish who gets excited by things such as strangely coloured records then this one will make you blow bubbles. Musically, it’s a little bit pompous for me, I’d enjoy it more if it was a bit muckier, a lot less grandiose and more flecked with the imperfections of broken people playing broken music. It all seems a little too clean cut, and if I want to listen to a rage, then clean cut is the last thing I want. Apart from that, a solid listen, and I would be happy to play air guitar to this at the rock club after one too many. If the only thing I can really knock it for is what it isn’t, rather than what it is, then it can’t be all bad.