What Is This, I Don't Even

Okay, so my last year's new year's promise was that I would at least make an effort to update this blog more than randomly. In my defense I've been swamped with various activities, both school and work-related and recreational. Now, in the true spirit of the upcoming year I'm going to take a look back at two (yes, you read right) albums that helped shape me as a person this year.

E For Explosion - Reinventing the Heartbeat

This band came to me like Jesus. That is, like a thief in the night. (Thessalonians, 5:2) The band was recommended to me through Last.fm and since they happened to have some songs free to listen to I gave them a try.

After listening to "Behind Every Breath" I was hooked. With that said, Reinventing the Heartbeat is by no means a revolutionary album. To put it quite bluntly, it's an album filled with all the indie pop/shoegaze clichés of the last century and doesn't break too much new ground. But the band would be damned if they didn't make their sound extremely addictive.

The album starts, as seems to be required by law for modern shoegaze bands, with a slow, ethereal piece titled "Sunday," which may lead the noncautious listener to think that this is another album of generic indie pop. That said listener would be entirely right in many ways. The songs "Reinventing the Heartbeat" and "Behind Every Breath" which follow the intro are both filled with delightfully heartfelt expressions of love and pain. The latter actually deserves special mention due to the fact that, in spite of sounding like a song the Backstreet Boys would make if they suddenly turned indie, it has the one of the catchiest hooks ever. At this point I must admit that I'm tempted to quote the entirety of the chorus to you... ah, heck, I might as well:

I beg you close your eyes
I'm only a voice
just a thought, just a reason
I could be your best excuse to live a lie
I'll do all I can to make your heart beat with mine

Sappy? Why, hell yes. That doesn't make the song any worse off, in my personal opinion. The reason why I'm having such a hard time reviewing this album is simply because I keep returning to that one song and ignoring the rest of the album before and after it, but in the name of journalistic integrity I must try.

The album stays pretty firmly on the indie pop romance axis for the rest of its length, but it does it with such an honesty and integrity that it can only be admired. Special mentions go to the aptly titled "Paper Flowers Never Die," to the slow ballad "Lies Lies Lies," the godawfully romantic "You Know Who You Are," (which contains the pathetic lyrics "When you're close to me/I'm in heaven") and the surprisingly perky "I Explode."

E For Explosion doesn't take any chances with its first album. It's an extremely listenable collection of indie pop love songs. It doesn't break any new artistic ground, but it will definitely tug your heartstrings if you're into that sort of thing.

The final verdict:
Band: E For Explosion
Album: Reinventing the Heartbeat
Score: Four broken hearts out of five

We Miss The Earth - A New Silent Era

What can I say? This band had me sold at their name. It at the same time invokes images of environmentalism and, thanks to a friend of mine, aliens having visited our planet and now wanting to return to it. The album, only available in digital format at the moment, is a refreshing piece of lo-fi electro-goth whatever. Even I am at a loss at describing this band's sound, but the truth is that the band is well-grounded in the 80s tradition of dark music and at the same time a breath of fresh air into the scene. While they certainly owe a lot of their sound to early electronic/goth acts of the 80s their sound is extremely refreshing in a scene filled with sorry Sisters of Mercy/Christian Death/The Cure derivatives.

What makes A New Silent Era such a great experience is the fact that, unlike many new electronic acts, they don't equate the term electronic with the sterile sound of many modern darkwave band nor the upbeat indie electro pop that has become a fad in the wake of bands like Crystal Castles. Their sound is charmingly unpolished, lending it an air of intimacy absent in too many a modern electronic band, and the lead singer's use of an extremely rudimentary echo effect adds a nearly primal quality to the album.

Songs that particularly stand out on the album include the heart-rending "Incentive" and "Pulling My Stitches," the divinely abrasive "Voices in the Dryer" and "Life and Limb" and "Reception," which sounds like what Joy Division would probably sound like through a Commodore 64 after a couple too many drops of acid.

A New Silent Era is an absolutely fantastic album for those who enjoy the darker side. One should only avoid this album if one is chronically allergic to the introduction of electronic elements into the tried and true dark formula.

And the scores are...
Band: We Miss The Earth
Album: A New Silent Era
Score: Five dead babies in one barrel