Labels: Tiny Engines
Review by: Alex Deller
Been listening to this since the promo dropped into my inbox last year, and while there are only five songs and I like each of them very much I’ve found it incredibly difficult to get my thoughts on them down on paper. Ostensibly, they’re fairly simple things comprising big, surging riffs, catchy melodic squiggles and Chris Higdon’s voice, which, as ever, manages to convey a distinctive mix of saccharine sweetness, rage and earnest desperation. And while this is my stock description, I don’t really feel it does things justice. They’re powerful and anthemic in a way that’s both obvious and not; frequently surprising even though the elements seem fairly off-the-shelf. Maybe it’s just the combined skill and experience of the members that they make it sound so easy, or maybe I’m just reading too much into things. In any event, it’s great. And if you need any further convincing I’d say it’s like the most striking moments of Falling Forward and Elliott (‘Third Cross Salute’ and ‘The Watermark High’, say), distilled down to their most fundamental parts and delivered in passionate, three or four-minute bursts of goodness.