Review Summary: Stop running. Give up.
If you were to look at a graph labeled “The Decline of Falling Up And The Aftermath” up to the point of 2013’s
Midnight On Earthship (I’m aware that
Hours was also released in 2013 but the band wanted it considered a separate project from the overall cohesion of Falling Up’s discography), it would read much like this.
Captiva(2.5) was a medium downward line from
Exit Lights(3.5).
Fangs!(1.5) was a huge downward line from
Exit Lights and a medium from
Captiva. Then came
Your Sparkling Death Cometh(3), a huge upward line from
Fangs! and small upward line from
Captiva, almost equidistant from
Exit Lights.
Midnight On Earthship is the next piece of the progression, so where does it stack up?
Let’s get one thing out of the way right now. The reasons that YSDC was much stronger than the preceding albums are as follows: Jesse’s voice was deeper and more mature. We were spared from his horrid screams. The rock edge was back and not filtered out. The synths were relatively toned down in favor of orchestral strings. That being said, Falling Up screwed up once again and went back to some of the same problems of F!. Jesse’s voice, for one, is back to being exceedingly annoying. It isn’t emotional. It isn’t pleasant nine times out of ten. It’s just bad. Remember how confident he sounded on songs like “Circadian” and “Flights”, or even “Hotel Aquarium” and “A Guide To Marine Biology”? Yeah that’s gone. Instead he’s back to this faux-childlike sense of wonder that just grows very boring. And when he isn’t doing that, he’s trying and failing to emulate Relient K’s Matthew Thiessen, or he’s trying to give out some sort of western, raspy drawl that sounds ever so awkward (think all of the I Am Empire ballads. Or “Start With Today” by Before Their Eyes). THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NO ELECTRIC GUITAR PRESENCE AND IT REALLY PISSES ME OFF. NONE. NOTHING. ZILCH. Now I’ve said it for the band before. I will say it again. If Jesse Ribordy has this much creative ambition, God bless him. But he needs to just start a side project under his name. Seriously. This sounds NOTHING like Falling Up. Drums?! Bass?! NOT PRESENT. The cool orchestral strings from the last album? Nope, replaced by the SAME BORING TECHNO EFFECTS USED ON FANGS.
There are NO STANDOUTS. NOTHING. I would rather listen to
Fangs!. At least there was some sense of ingenuity. But this? This is lazy. Indescribably lazy. Every single song sounds the same. The album just blends together in a boring, forgettable haze. Lyrically.. Heh…. lyrically. Yeah there’s nothing noteworthy there either because that might actually require the whole band to collaborate on something. But I forgot that this was just THE JESSE RIBORDY SHOW.
I just can’t tolerate this. It sounds like a cover album. It sounds so generic and watered down. It just sounds weak. And boring. And lazy. Skip this. There’s nothing redeemable here. Move along. Save yourself. This is a massive downward line straight for the 1 mark.
