Labels: Deep Elm
Review by: Andy Malcolm
Good lord. Emo Diaries 9! Who would have thunk it? The compilation series that has the resilience of one of George Romero’s zombies. Cut off it’s head! Cut off it’s head! Ha ha, I’m just kidding you. Of course, there are no emo songs on this CD at all. That doesn’t mean it’s bad. It just means there are no emo songs on here. Some day I plan to put out a CD called “The Jazz Diaries” and fill it with songs by boy bands. Don’t ya think that’d be cool, don’t ya? Eh?
Lets check out the bands on the latest incarnation then.
So Sad Althea – Pleasant indie rock, very melodic, nice jangling guitars that reminds me of the British melodic hardcore sound when those bands played slower (Broccoli, Blocko, Shonben etc…). This was nice, I would even listen to it again.
Michael – Hey, it’s that band named after Collective reviewer, Mike Whelan. This is one of those bands Deep Elm loves to put out – bands that have really annoying vocals. They give the listener some simple mid paced, melodic indie rock – bland verse, bland chorus. The vocals are “annoying All-American nasaly whine boy”, plus he copies Jeremy Enigk in the high parts. Meh. It has jangles and also some strings to show how diverse the are. Could be worse, but it’s a fair ways off being a passable immitation of SDRE.
Surrounded – What the fuck is this? I bet these guys are Scandinavian (yep, I checked and they are Swedish). This is really mediocre slowed down pop music that goes nowhere. The person that considers this emo is not in possession of ears.
Iamuse – shit name. It’s track 4 and this comp is badly in need of some energy, it’s just flailing around in a sea of sleep right now. More Swedes. The vocals are weird. This is indie that really drags. Slow music can be great (e.g. Low), but this is merely dull.
the Local Art – aha! At last, a band has some rock parts. Too bad that they have these really annoying piercing guitar noises that go on for ages and keep reappearing. Japanese indie rock that is at least refreshing in that it has some energy, but this is nowhere near as good as those old Snuffy Smile bands like Wall and Three Minute Movie. Shame, but not a track I would skip at least.
the Paper Champions – ooh, nice sway to get started, this sounds very ’98. I was expecting it to suddenly get quite loud, they keep teasing with breakdowns and lots of jangles. Eventually it does get a bit noisier. The vocals sound like an “emo” version of the Offspring though?
La Pieta – jingly jangly subdued boy+girl indie, kinda like Rainer Maria but not as good as that would suggest. Nice and warm sounding. Pleasant is the key word here.
Settlefish – intro sounds ultra ’98, warm and mathy Braid type stuff going on here, but the vocals are too generic for the style for my liking. It never quite gets going either. Reasonably solid, and I love the bass on this track.
Avec – Boy+girl indie rock nothingness. These guys seriously need to listen to Lumber. I’ll do them a tape if they like.
Milton Mapes – I once had a teacher called Mrs. Mapes. I remember she was quite a size. This has a spacey intro that straight away set off warning signals. Turned out to be fairly standard stuff with a country tinge, nothing to catch my attention, nor worry the neighbours
At the Close of Every Day – these dudes have a well emo name, by this stage I was hoping for some anthemic SDRE knockoff or a Promise Ring style bouncefest, but what I get is humourously vocalled jangly indie. The vocals just make me laugh. I am sorry.
the National Anthems – another low energy song to end on. Way too much slow stuff on here, I think the folks at Deep Elm must be getting into their 30’s or something. This is like Coldplay and Radiohead. State of the Emo Union eh folks! What can I say.
Well there you go. Emo Diaries 9. I am sure if you like the stuff that Deep Elm puts out, then you will also like this CD too. Simple! I should have just written that at the start of my review. We live in and learn. Oh, and a couple more things. Firstly, does Deep Elm still make records for the working class? And also, in this internet driven day and age, they really oughta consider renaming it “Emo Live Journals”.