Title: A Veteran Of Sorts
Format Reviewed: MP3
Format Released: 23rd October 2015
Reviewed By: Ben Chapman
Plymouth four-piece Blowouts will indeed be making themselves veterans of sorts, not just through technically stamping their mark via this debut release, but in the tough ordeal and thick-skinned necessity of pushing an album that's sadly, while not mired entirely with bad moments, is also too elusive with its great ones to go either way.
Stop Loss Policy sets out their brand of moodier, more atmospheric indie-rock amongst more straightforward punk strumming. Though the tribal feel to the drums builds well, and the vocals nuanced with typical indie warble (full of old and new melodic nods to acts like The Cure or Editors), whilst the guitar adds a good amount of tuneful wailing, perhaps the bass is often a bit too steady, and the song's journey doesn't stretch far. I found at several points with this album, despite enjoying the approach that it's just for some reason hard to appreciate. It's tough to settle into, to get fully comfy with this music, because almost as if you can;t take off your coat, you'll find yourself asking, "Where are the hooks?"
It seems it's not until the second song that we're given one, with the speedy Pulp Fiction-theme jangle of guitar introducing the album's title track. Not the most remarkable tune, despite the danceable guitar line joining in towards the song's end to play around on the offbeat.
Things pick up during On A Roll due to its unusually pitched vocal intro; the authentic instrumentation is full of non-flashy but thrashy deliverance, and the crowding of modest vocal harmonies top this one off. But it is a one-off. Though the band has proficiency in concise song structure, they often forget to litter the songs with catchy moments as they have in this track.
Thankfully Peace Talks also improves on the album opener nicely, with its palm-muted groove prior to the chorus encouraging movement. The album is busying up at this point, recovering from its slow start and adding a few more attention-grabbing parts that make up the usual hooks and riffs that carry along any good indie-rock tune. Leading Lady's spikily chugging guitar opens like a stripped down take on the Foos' One By One, playing out as a fine example of these more jarring post-punk influences, which I wish were more prevalent throughout. A slower, bleaker turn is taken with We're Safe In Here. It's nice to see the band indulge themselves a bit more, but I feel this one loses the momentum that the album had just been gaining.
Lost At Sea's spooky backing vocal brings some welcome variety to the proceedings. The haunting feel is ripped apart by a nicely Weezer-esque melody-focused solo, which keeps us busy before one last verse to close. 237's messy feel exiles listeners from their comfort zone. This instrumental track is an opportunity for the band to finally, really show off. Unfortunately the fact that the instrumental is one of the most arresting tracks implies that the rest album has room for improvement.
Luckily Post Trauma follows, managing to dispel this with its momentum and thoughtful build-up towards the end, so that the album feels like it's drawing to a close naturally. There's a nice drive to this one, with steady bass and snare drum adding the foot-tap to proceedings. Hospital Beds is another burst of energetic, not overly heavy punk that's sometimes a bit too steady in its rocking, sandwiched between an intro and outro of more sensitively played acoustic moments. Though the song's core sounds somewhat repetitive in the context of the eleven previous tracks, this one's final moments, with the tinkling piano, quiet arpeggio on the steel string, and loud whinge of vocals, is a bit more touching than what we've heard before.
Storm Chaser's lengthy intro is stylistically void of energy until well into halfway through, where out comes the thrashily strummed guitar chords, the riff made a bit more interesting with the edge of a funk shuffle's dextrous wristwork. This binary jump in energy encapsulates the band's carefulness with song structure. Unfortunately the album is far and few between with these moments, and though it's a solid effort, cemented in the ample mixing, there's not enough moments heard here that encourage you to relive them.
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