Review Summary: Ramadan is comatose sing-along music
When an album hits you on first listen, it is something special. I have had experiences of going into albums with no expectation and coming out emotionally engrossed in the sound I had just experienced. These albums are often those of grandiose sounds, ones that are made to captivate and entertain. I suppose, in a way, Ramadan argues with this theory. Ramadan is in no way grandiose, I’d go as far as to say that it’s amongst the most chilled albums I have ever had the pleasure to listen to. Yet as soon as ‘Sutro(Heroin Jazz Remix)’ met my ears, I felt a strange sense of ease. The simplistic guitar strumming & quiet drums captured me in a way that nothing grandiose ever could. I knew something was special about this album. There was nothing else to do but get a drink, place the earphones back in and allow myself to be transcended by the mellowness of an album that I knew one day would be something very special.
Ramadan’s sound is excelled in its subtleties; it’s these subtleties that kept me certain that one day I would love this album. It’s the subtle melodic backing vocals on songs like ‘Ramadan’ that are able to send the listener into a blissful meditation. It’s the subtle brilliance of every hook on the album, conveying a different sound with each but remaining that same mastered chill. It’s the fact that somehow the band have the nerve to fit in 2 different versions of the same song and it never being a problem - who do they think they are? Yo La Tengo?
Ee are very sure about the sound that they’re trying to convey on Ramadan and they never stray from their roots, which helps aid the brilliance. There are no points in which they attempt to try anything that they’re not certain that they can perfect. Even on conventionally louder songs on the album such as ‘Wrong Song’ and ‘Brace’, they don’t attempt to completely change the sound that they have mastered. ‘Wrong Song’ goes as far as to add distortional vocals and louder drumming, but it keeps within the same vein as every other song on the album, adding to the palate as appose to hindering it. ‘One Less Year’ deserves a mention for being the best song on here, and the masterpiece of the album. The song was the only one to absolutely blow me away on first listen; the tingle of the guitar to open up the song, the plain emotion in the hook, and the strange sense of nostalgia it conveys. It helped confirm that this was an album worth listening to.
It really is a shame that this band have been forgotten with time, it happens too often in music. On a different day, in a different time, Ee could have been huge. With that being said, maybe it’s for the best. With Ramadan alone Ee have left us with an album full of classics and an experience that is very much their own. This is slow Indie Rock at its very best, and with the amount of fans Ee have, any Indie Rock band could rip this album off completely and get their own praise from it. Hell, I’d probably still give it a 4/5. It’s just that good.
