At first listen, I felt there was a similarity in their style
to that of Metric; an indie rock
sound with keyboards being the most heavily noticed instrument. The
similarities may have been there on the band’s debut album Passive Me, Aggressive You, but for the bands most recent album, In Rolling Waves, The Naked and Famous
decided to turn up their level of experimentation in sounds, production and
even in song writing.
The albums first track, A
Stillness is, I find, a curious choice to start the album. The song is as
interesting of a mix of keyboard sounds and acoustic guitars as well as Alisa Xayalith’s soft soothing voice. By the time the song hits the three
minute mark, it has already gone through about three different variations of
acoustic/keyboard rhythms keeping its listeners attention, and it just keeps
building. While the song does an excellent job displaying the band and albums
all around sound, I’m not sure it is the best opening track for the album, some
people may love it, but some people may be sceptical to listen to the rest of
the album. For the latter group, I’d urge to continue listening and give a few
more songs a chance.
The albums leading single, Hearts Like Ours adds more electric guitars to the punch and
remains catchy and mellow all the way through. As mellow as the song is, it
maintains a happy young and free feeling. For some, I have found, the song may
be a bit repetitive. If by the second or third verse you start to feel like the
song isn’t going anywhere, than this song may not be for you. I have found this
to be the case for one or two people.
Guitarist/vocalist Thom
Powers gets his first lead vocal spot on the album with the song Waltz (with the exception of the bridge
on Hearts Like Ours). Just like songs he sang on the band’s debut, his singing
style s the perfect partner for Alisa’s, very laid back and soft spoken. Waltz,
being a duet between the two vocalists, displays just this, as they harmonize
their vocals perfectly and switch lead vocal duties back and forth comfortably.
The two also combine their voices well on the song The Mess, as well as on other points of the album.
By the time you get to the albums fourth track, Rolling Waves, you may find that the
beat and pace of the songs are rather slow. Rolling Waves is one of the faster
paced songs of the album, though by most other bands standards the pace of the
song would still be considered slow, it provides a good change for the album.
Probably my least favourite moment on the album is the song Grow Old. It is another long slow paced
song, but that’s not a bad thing at all. I just really do not enjoy the vocal
effects used for Thom’s voice on the song, which takes up well over half of the
song. While it makes up for the fact that the song would be nothing significant
without the vocal effects, it just gets old and frankly a bit too weird at a
point. The bridge of the song, which features Alisa on lead vocals, does a valiant
job at picking up the slack. It’s just too bad that it takes four minutes to get
to it.
The band relapses with Golden
Girl, the shortest song on the album. I suppose it is supposed to serve as
some sort of interlude to the album, but it’s catchiness really makes it worth
listening to. The song completely contradicts Grow Old in that while Grow Old
ran about four minutes too long, Golden Girl ran about two minutes too short.
By this point in the album, there have been a number of
upbeat and inspirational songs, I enjoy how the band can freely go from gloomy
tunes to happy sounds. I Kill Giants fits
in this description with its late 90’s alternative backbeat mixed in with the
bands originality. What We Want continues
this upbeat sound and also shows a bit of an 80’s influence. Frankly, there
have been a few moments thus far where the band sounds like they know how to
make songs as catchy as their 80’s predecessors, but I find this songs, just
like I Kill Giants, adds in the bands originality very well.
One trick up the bands sleeve that they use numerously on the
album is their ability to start a song slowly and have it gradually pick up as
the song goes, ending it completely different from how it started. Songs like
the opening track and The Mess come
to mind as well as To Move With Purpose.
The band changes that up a bit on the song We
Are Leaving, which gradually picks up as the song goes, starting off with
just keyboards, then gradually adding more instruments as the song goes on, but
rather than the song ending full of instruments in a wall of sound, it ends the
way it started with just keyboards and vocals.
The song ends with one last duet between Thom and Alisa. A Small Reunion brings back the acoustic
guitar heard in the songs opening track, only this time the guitar is the more prominent
instrument. Even when the keyboards and synthesizer sounds over-power the song,
the acoustic guitar can still be heard keeping the song innocent. The song provides
a good farewell to the album, I think it is the violin sounds, I’m not quite
sure, but the music just sounds like the end is coming. The song makes me want
more, thanks in no small part to the last minute and a half or so where the
acoustic guitars turn to electric guitars and the drum beat intensifies to
probably the heaviest they have been on the entire album.
While In Rolling Waves,
and The Naked and Famous in general seem like they are
just another radio friendly pop-rock act, they are far from it. I’m not sure I’d
go so far as to call the band progressive, but they show intelligence and
maturity beyond their years in ways that bands coined as “progressive rock”
back in the 70’s showed. The songs may be heavily keyboard and synth-driven, as
a lot of todays biggest hit songs are, but the band doesn’t seem to make
keyboard and synth-driven songs for the sake of having their song played after
the latest Katy Perry song, but rather to further exemplify their writing
talents and their desire to be different from everyone else. While the album has,
albeit just a few less than terrific moments, the uniqueness of the album in
general makes this album worth the acclaim it has been getting.
ALBUM HIGHLIGHT
“What We Want” – I’m finding my choices
for highlights to be tougher and tougher to make lately. I was strongly
considering having I Kill Giants as
the highlight. Both tracks would be my biggest recommendations for the album,
but while I Kill Giants remains upbeat throughout the song, What We Want mixes
both the upbeat sounds of the band with the more serious side of their sound.
It does a terrific job at being taken seriously until the songs chorus, which I
think is the best chorus on the entire album. To my chagrin, there is no video of the song so I can't post it for readers to listen.
FINAL RATING
8.5 (Out of 10)
Track List:
1.
|
"A Stillness"
|
5:22
|
2.
|
"Hearts Like Ours"
|
4:32
|
3.
|
"Waltz"
|
5:12
|
4.
|
"Rolling Waves"
|
3:39
|
5.
|
"The Mess"
|
4:06
|
6.
|
"Grow Old"
|
6:36
|
7.
|
"Golden Girl"
|
2:12
|
8.
|
"I Kill Giants"
|
4:12
|
9.
|
"What We Want"
|
4:19
|
10.
|
"We Are Leaving"
|
4:39
|
11.
|
"To Move with Purpose"
|
5:03
|
12.
|
"A Small Reunion"
|
5:45
|
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