Labels: No Sleep – Run for Cover
Review by: james pacanowski
The smell of cheese and bro-sweat is initially strong with this double dose of Pennsylvania pop-rock. Balance and Composure kick things off with their brand of crunchy emoting, that has the vague whiff of Grade about it but with the distinct taste of post-Clarity Jimmy Eat World and Hey Mercedes lingering amongst the shiny guitar sound. Fans of the worst bits of Title Fight would most likely wet themselves over this band. Much too corny for my liking, but if this is the sort of thing that’s your bag then I guess you could certainly do worse.
A lot of people have been down on the Tigers Jaw side, and I was told not to expect much from their effort. Pish, I say to them. The Twin Peaks referencing on ‘lodging’ may have swayed my judgement a little, but this is still a solid showing. Jangles and shimmers in all the right ways, brings to mind all the best bits of Superchunk. This shows particularly well on the laid-back standout track ‘jet alone’ which cruises nicely on sweetly layered crests of keyboards and tambourines. Proper good indie-rock, nearly worth the price of entry on its own but definitely good enough to make this worth looking into despite the opening half.