Skip to main content

ALBUM REVIEW: "Wait For Love" by Pianos Become The Teeth

   Indie/emo staples Pianos Become The Teeth have completed one of the most remarkable shapeshifting acts in recent memory with the arrival of their fourth full length album, Wait For Love. Initially, on their first record Old Pride, they presented an incredibly raw and emotionally draining screamo experience which was honed to near perfection on their second full length, The Lack Long After (now a screamo and emo standard, and for good reason). 2014's Keep You saw them double back into a more subdued sound, notable mostly for vocalist Kyle Durfey's stylistic shift away from screaming in favour of a more traditional singing performance. It must be said, though, that this shift was down to much more than simply a decision to stop screaming - the sound as a whole shifted to a more tired melancholy in comparison to the frantic and almost panicked devastation of the first two records. Keep You was a devastatingly beautiful album in its own right, but definitely had its flaws. Much like how The Lack Long After improved upon Old Pride in every aspect, Wait For Love has taken the new elements that the band introduced on Keep You and grown and nurtured them into the best version of what this incarnation of Pianos Become The Teeth could be.
   It is an absolutely masterful album, beginning to end.
   It bears saying twice; I absolutely love The Lack Long After and their older sound in general - it is as beautiful and tear-jerking as it is crushing and devastating. But there is something about what Pianos Become The Teeth have produced on this album in particular that incites a genuinely draining cocktail of loss and hope. Some might comment that Wait For Love is the band's "happy" album, and to a certain degree that is true; opener "Fake Lighting" is definitely the most upbeat opening to a Pianos album to date, and the neon-paint laced music video for lead single "Charisma" drew not unwarranted comparisons to a certain pop megapower. But the brighter elements of this album only serve to make the shadows and twilight all the more darker.
   The material that Durfey deals with has always been harrowing to say the least, and while the loudness factor of The Lack Long After served as a kind of counterpoint (while also making it even more painful), Keep You if anything lacked such a crossroads at which pain and ecstasy could dance around each other. For me this is where Wait For Love really excels - where Keep You lacked the variation to be completely effective, Wait For Love ebbs and flows and drags in both directions way too frequently for my emotions to keep up.
   Wait For Love is an early contender for my album of 2018, and definitely a record that you should check out this month. Just don't say I didn't warn you.

   Favourite Tracks: Charisma, Bay Of Dreams and Manila

    Least Favourite Track: Dry Spells

   Rating: A

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

1 YEAR LATER: "22, A Million" by Bon Iver

   Bon Iver's third studio album turns 1 in about a week (where did that year go?), so I thought it would be interesting to talk a bit about how my impressions of the album have changed - or how they haven't - over the last 12 months. When this album was released I was more excited than I think I ever have been to hear a new album. For Emma, Forever Ago is one of my all time favourites, and I love his self-titled second album too, so I had huge expectations for this album, but was also wary that expectations might ruin my experience of the music. This was particularly the case for 22, A Million , because it is unlike anything else Justin Vernon has released. There have been hints at this more processed, electronic direction previously, like the song "Woods" on the Blood Bank EP and occasional flourishes on Bon Iver , but 22, A Million is a drastic departure from the Bon Iver sound we had grown accustomed to at this point in time. Or at least, that's what I thought...
Post a Comment
Read more

ALBUM REVIEW: "Go Farther In Lightness" by Gang Of Youths

   Where do you go after penning an hour-long tale of a relationship doomed by terminal cancer and subsequent depression, substance abuse and suicide attempts? The fact that Gang of Youths frontman and songwriter David Le'aupepe had anything left to say - let alone an EP and then a double album epic - in the two years since 2015's beautifully tragic The Positions is quite frankly remarkable. For Go Farther In Lightness to be as compelling and emotionally draining as it is, then, is mind-blowing. The musical well was obviously still rich for Gang of Youths, and they have released a sprawling epic that stands up confidently next to The Positions . Symphonic interludes provide a grand backdrop for the decidedly larger sounding album that also manages to slip in some of the most intimate moments in their already sparkling catalogue. It's this feeling of comprehensiveness - that they have covered all bases - that makes Go Farther In Lightness such a rich and immersive experien...
Post a Comment
Read more

ALBUM REVIEW: "A Man Apart" by Ben Ottewell

   Ben Ottewell's third LP A Man Apart goes boldly where he has been before, and while it certainly does that pretty well it doesn't manage to either strike new ground or any real emotional response. There is a distinctly "nice" feel to this record, which is, um, nice I guess if that's what you want. But it just doesn't feel like there's any immediacy or forward motion on any of these songs, like Ottewell is content with writing songs that could be on four wheel drive ads. Again, there isn't really anything particularly bad here, it's just a singer-songwriter album that isn't trying to break new ground. His typically growly voice is also beginning to give way to a more accessible, smooth tone, which could place you on either side of this record. For me it just cements it's place firmly in the middle ground somewhere.    Favourite Songs: Own It, A Man Apart and Lead Me    Least Favourite Songs: Watcher, Back To The World and Bones ...
Post a Comment
Read more