Review Summary: A fantastic debut album showing the beginning of a promising career.
Technology can be either a blessing or a curse for bands in the 21st century. Sure, it is much easier to find a potential audience for your band using the Internet, but because it is easier, that means a lot more people are doing it, making it hard to stand out in an oversaturated pool of music. Couple that with technological advances in audio production and you have a pretty competitive music industry nowadays.
However, some bands, such as Buffalo’s Pentimento, are able to utilize these tools successfully. After a dispute with their record label, Panic Records, right when their debut full-length was supposed to be released in November 2012, the band decided to self-release the record for free, sending out download links to anyone who asked. Combined with a strong social media presence (Tweet at them about Waffle House sometime), Pentimento seem to have played their cards right in the last year, touring with popular acts ranging from old-school favorites (Less Than Jake) to trendy new pop-punk bands (Real Friends). However, none of this would have been possible without a killer debut effort to grab listeners by their throats, which is exactly what Pentimento produced with their self-titled record.
Starting with opening track “Unless”, Pentimento immediately show how much they have progressed from their debut EP, Wrecked. A catchy opening riff builds up into one of the biggest hooks on the album, as singer Jeramiah Pauly snarls, “I’m holding on to all of the things that I’ve done wrong/Mistakes I’ve made, over and over.” The intensity of the track is a precursor for what’s to come on the rest of the album, which builds up and doesn’t let go until Pauly’s final lines in album closer “On Summer”.
Passion and intensity are qualities Pentimento do not lack. The “heart-on-sleeve” lyrical style does come across as a little too blunt at times, but never to the point that the listener wishes for more metaphors. The directness is what makes this band who they are. Songs such as “Conscience (Consequence)” feature fantastic dual-vocal interplay between Pauly and drummer Mike Hansen, whose screams of “I can’t stay stuck like this forever” truly resonate with the listener. It is a fine line for a lyricist to walk between triteness and honesty, and Pentimento toe this line adeptly. Additionally, the album is chock full of Tweet-worthy one-liners (i.e. “Getting older is nothing but empty intentions to keep in touch” in No One Lets You Know). Oftentimes, especially in the modern pop-punk genre, it seems that bands attempt to work mediocre songs around one solid one-liner, yet this is never the case with Pentimento; the songs all feel very complete.
Pentimento show a surprising amount of musical range on this record. While the influence from bands such as Hot Water Music is evident, the band adds a poppier, more melodic twist to this style, drawing comparisons to Taking Back Sunday and early Brand New. “Almost Atlantic” features a melodic intro carried by masterfully harmonized vocals and a simple, but effective riff, before it builds up and comes crashing down with a huge chorus and furious drumming from Hansen. The following track, “Subtle Words” is by far the most risky and musically diverse song the band has created (it has a string section!), but it pays off big time with solid use of dynamics and a fantastic vocal performance from Pauly. The band also (somewhat unsuccessfully) tries the seemingly obligatory acoustic track, with a solo acoustic re-recording of “The Bridge” from the band’s split with Young English. While Pauly’s vocals also shine on this track, it seems a bit out of place and unnecessary.
The biggest selling point for Pentimento’s self-titled record is that there really is no selling point at all. There’s no gimmick, no attention to trendiness. It’s a simple punk record that assaults the listener with honest, relatable songs about anger and disappointment and self-loathing. While there are a few minor flaws for the band to work out going forward, for a debut full-length, the band is off to a fantastic start, far ahead of many of their peers, and as long as passion is the driving force behind this band, they are more than likely only at the beginning of what could be a very successful career.
