The Tampa trio are former straight edge hard core kids who began creating this music after the broke edge by smoking pot. Drugs bring about the best music. I got into these guys last year after hearing the Smiths name thrown around in reference to them but what I hearts often almost like a Witch House version of Roxy Music and their new e.p.shows a wide breadth of growth for the band who has reached a new clarity in song writing. By their own admission they are into shoe gaze by way of Miles Davis, yet their is much more old Cocteau Twins than Sketches of Spain.
The first song "Who are you" has a My Bloody Valentine drone to it, with harmonica sprinkled through out and the trippy flow of early Beatles drug days. the opener however is not afari precursor to what is to come even as ambitious as it is for some punks who started messing with keyboards five years ago.
"Anxiety's Door" has really the only trae of the Smiths to how the acoustic guitar sweeps in sorta like "Hand in Glove" . The vocals croon remind me more of a dead pan Bryan Ferry more than Moz. The people who have brought up Morrissey comparisons aren't familiar with Roxy Music so I can see where they would come up with that having no otherpoint of reference.
"I'll" Be Gone" these guys hit the mark perfectly, the dreamy melancholy provides a lush back ground for the matter of fact vocal delivery that creates something that wouldn't sound out of place as the soundtrack for a David Lynch movie. The lyrics describe how I feel pretty much ninety percent of the time. The guitar as an amazing sonic tone when it layers swathes of morose feedback over the proceedings. This is what it sounds like when you get an angry punk really high.
The title track has jagged showers of angular guitar which sound lifted of Bowie's "Scary Monsters" album being driven on a suicide mission by Tin Machine. The chaos ebbs and flows breaking down I the middle for the drums to fade back in an take back off with things as it builds into almost a commercial alternative radio rock type chorus...think Snow Patrol not Shinedown, though over all aside from the Bowie I can also detect some Pixies, like "Wave of Mutilation"
The closer " Winter's Dream" returns to the smooth surreal feel they captured early with " I'll Be Gone" but this is much more Roxy Music like a drugged out lost track from "Avalon". The debonair sway of the vocals really shines here,. It's great to hear them give their singer more space to work his magic and I hope the band continues to press forward in this direction. The guitar sounds on this album are all immaculate , wheni here their influences they are pulling for the best sources so no complaints. The lyrics are beautifully scathing with equal parts of self loathing "I'd sooner kill myself / than be someone else"... Those are lines I can relate to and very honest, which I think is where the Smiths connection is more in the raw emotional honesty conveyed I. The lyrics I think people here that kind of vulnerability and think of Morrissey who opened doors for others to pass through.
This gets a 10...the first song works but isn't the strongest yet the rest of the album is so incredible it balances out and you kind of grow to appreciate the opening. I like their earlier work but I'm glad they have come out for hiding behind the murky production and letting the songs shine and vocals break the surface.
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