Labels: Animal Style Records
Review by: MH
Kite Party are another Philadelphia band and this is their debut album. I’ve listened to this a number of times now and I’m finding them quite difficult to describe “” it’s certainly indie but there is a real mish-mash of styles on this album. The first song “Welcome To Miami” opens up with some mid-90s emo-style twinkly guitars “” it is admittedly more like Algernon Cadwallader than American Football though. I’m just talking about the intro on this song as it then goes off and does its own thing – they don’t sound like either of those 2 bands across the album. They are not following your standard verse-chorus-verse structure for the most part either. It also gets a bit jangly at times too and has an atmospheric, summery feel throughout. Second track “Runner” is a really good indie rock song “” it’s kind of wistful with a nice riff. “Buried In Dogs” has an almost 60s feel to it and there is a strong hint of shoegazing in the guitars on some of the tracks such as “Highwater” and “Jaws Of Life” which employ shimmering guitar effects. The vocals are a lot more prominent and louder than your average shoegaze band though. It’s also fairly upbeat for the most part. On “Southpaw” they rock out a bit more and then throw in a bit of trumpetmo in the closing track “We Won’t Survive”. I’m not necessarily picking out particular songs when I listen to it (although the lovely “Jaws of Life” is the standout for me) and have been listening to it right through each time. It works well as a whole album and I quite like it – it’s a bit different.