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Review Summary: Even a beautiful tree can produce slightly rotten fruit Oranges, the newest member of Blue Swan Records, just released their debut; and since I am an avid swancore fan, I decided to check this album out. So, how was it? Well, it was frustrating.
I'll start with the positives, these guys are ridiculously talented. The guitars are as wonky and technical as you would expect from a swancore band. The drums are fast and all over the place, with a breakdown once in a blue moon for good measure. The drums and guitars can even slow it down when it's needed, which is much appreciated, since this album can be a little too energized for it's own good.
Unfortunately, this album has some glaring problems. The main issue, this album is every other swancore album, but without the individuality. The guitars and drums that I said were so good, lifted straight from Stolas' Allomaternal and Hail The Sun's Wake. The vocalist, Parker Hunt, seems to be doing his best Donovan Melero impression (which could be seen as a Anthony Green impression, considering how similar the two vocalists voices are).
That's why this album frustrates me so much. It isn't bad, in fact it's quite good, but it wears it's influences on it's sleeve and doesn't try to add anything to it. This band just feels like it was started by a bunch of guys who loved DGD and their contemporaries and said "We like this kinda music, let's just copy them" and got lucky enough to get signed by Will Swan. This album doesn't inspire me, it makes me want to go and listen to much better bands that have showed some passion in there work.
All I can hope is that these guys carve out there own spot in their niche instead of copying their label mates, and that this isn't a sign of what's to come from Blue Swan.
Recommended tracks:
Cool Coconut Head
Casanova Caquesah
Logic Dictates: I <3 You
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This review may not be great, since it's been months since my last review. Constructive criticism is welcome as always.
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Well written. I honestly probably won't check this out despite being such a big Swancore fan. I've kinda burnt out of Blue Swan style.
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I kinda agree, although I will be checking out the new Icarus The Owl record. thanks for the positive feedback 
| | | Album Rating: 3.5
The recommended tracks are the best tracks on the album. It's an upbeat album which I like, but can't help but feel there's something missing that I can't really put my finger on.
| | | Album Rating: 2.5
i really wanna love this but everything on here just sounds so done before : /
| | | Album Rating: 4.0
If you forget about the albums this music is heavily influenced by I think there's a lot to love here.
| | | Album Rating: 3.0
Finally somebody wrote a review for this album! I agree, this album is strong 3 tops, 3.5 if you're into swancore. My main problem with this album is that the songs are all over place without any flow in them, also the song names are really off-putting.
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Yeah I was getting serious HelloGoodbye vibes from the track names lol
| | | Album Rating: 4.0
this album is good. How many artists in other genre's have similar sounds ? I don't see a problem here.
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The problem is that it doesn't have it's own identity. It just rehashes other Blue Swan artists. Like I said in the review, it is good, but why would I listen to a rehash of Stolas and Hail The Sun, when I can just listen to those artists. If you like it, that's cool. I just felt this album was unimaginative.
| | | Album Rating: 4.0
fair enough. I just think that this is better than stolas's and hail the sun's new records. this band is just so much more technical.
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Okay, but as far as I'm concerned, technical doesn't mean better. You can have all the talent in the world, but it's how you use it. Like I said, I want to see this band refine their own sound, and I expect their next album will do that. This just didn't do it for me.
| | | Album Rating: 4.0
I think they have their own sound. You mention in the review that the vocalist sounds like the guy from Hail The Sun and i disagree whole heartedly. Also, most of the bands on Blue Swan have switched to more traditional song structures and a lot of the time with chorus's. While this band is just straight chaotic. Maybe that's not for you. This album is not over produced, theres no cool effects, its just straight ear stimulation and talent. I aint sayin these guys are the best band ever, I'm just saying I dig it.
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I like non conventional song structure, but just because a band uses it, doesn't make them better. I love this style of music, DGD is one of, if not my favorite band of all time, so just because I didn't find this album amazing, doesn't means it's not my thing. Like I said, a band can't stand on talent alone, you have to do something with it. These guys just took the drumming style of ALLB and the guitars from TFOT and called it a day.
Not saying you are, but you seem to think that I have something against these guys, which obviously I don't. I just felt that, compared to recent releases from blue swan bands like Stolas, HTS, and Eidola; this band isn't anything special. It is a passable album, nothing more, nothing less.
| | | Album Rating: 3.0
I gave the album a few more spins since it has correctly tagged on Spotify now.
It's an okay album from a very talented band but imo they lack the ability to structure the song (Although they seem to get it right on Snow Monkeys) The album has many great "moments" that are connected by seemingly random drumming and shredding. Sometimes they try to be too wild for their own good like f.e. on Logic Dictates which at start seemed like it could be a really nice and beautiful swancore ballad but sadly they couldn't hold themselves for longer then a minute and twenty seconds.
Anyway, I'm not saying it's a bad release, it's definitely promising record and I hope Oranges will find a way to deal with the flaws people have pointed out
| | | Album Rating: 3.0 | Sound Off
prefer this to the new DGD tbh
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Didn't listen yet. I listened to the first 2 released songs and didn't feel the desire to after the aforementioned reasons. Hopefully they will get creative with their follow-up since they seem to have the potential
| | | Album Rating: 4.0
Yeah, Taxonomy sounds similar to other Blue Swan groups, but there's an edge to it that really draws me in.
| | | Album Rating: 3.0
Frustrating is a great way to describe this album. A few tracks caught my attention, which made me want to give the entire album a chance. After a full listen everything was very forgettable. The talent is there, however it’s all very plain despite the technical aspects.
| | | Album Rating: 3.5
This album has grown a lot and gotten catchier over time. Heard they broke up also, such a shame because they had a lot of potential.
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