Labels: self released
Review by: Danny Parsons
The first track – ‘In The Hospital’ – cracks off the EP with a lengthy guitary intro; simple drums and bass allow the vocals to reign here and all in all, they’re pretty ‘chanty’. This is the case for the rest of the EP too, which is all good in my books. It all speeds up a bit after that which is cool; then twinkly guitar becomes fiddly guitar. Although I am a devoted fan of the way that all of the instruments work in James Dean, it becomes clear after a few tracks that like Billy Werner and Casey Boland in Hot Cross (a loose comparison I know), vocals and guitar work are forefront to this band’s sound.
James Dean takes the fancy, twiddly bits of Hot Cross and blends them with more traditionally emo chords – even adding in little jazzy bits here and there too. In many respects, the guitar playing (apologies for focusing on it so much!) seems like a slightly watered-down or baser version of their national counterparts – To The North (this is probably most evident in ‘With Our Head In Our Hands’). I use the word ‘base’, but by no means is this a bad thing – in fact, it’s key to their sound. Similarly, the vocals in this EP and that of To The North are comparable; however, I think that James Dean’s are far more aurally pleasing and certainly more accessible. They’re shouty and often raspy, but always occupying the middle-ground between spoken word and scream. Spot on chaps. The last track – ‘Ribbons’ – is perhaps the simplest, shortest and most energetic track on the EP. The song whizzes by in just over two minutes and maintains the same quick pace throughout. Cool.
All in all, a pretty good effort I’d say. Standouts for me are ‘Ribbons’, and ‘Turn This Iron Handle’, although with five damn good tracks on the EP it really could be any of them I suppose. Fancy contemporary emo twiddlery that really shines. Cool packaging too with a little polaroid on. Nice, nice, nice!