Review Summary: Swelling magnificently, crushing occasionally, and propelled by fantastic drumming, 'Nothing Collapses' is one of the best post-rock releases in recent memory.
At this point, post-rock is, to many, a nearly stagnant genre. I personally know a few people who no longer even listen to genre "classics" like Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Explosions In The Sky because they claim that they now sound just the same as every other post-rock band that has come after them.
To a few of these people, I presented this album.
Nothing Collapses does share the genres love of huge, swelling crescendos and immense amounts of chiming and furiously strummed guitars, but there are a few key things that set Oceans apart from most of the pack, namely their penchant for adding a little bit of heaviness in with the beautiful spiraling melodies. Now i'm certainly not claiming adding heaviness is groundbreaking, just look at a couple of my recommendations, and Explosions In The Sky and Mogwai are certainly capable of shattering eardrums. What Oceans does is mix the massive, heavy power chords in at the same time as the main melody. Nothing groundbreaking to be sure, but the musicianship these gentleman possess, along with the drummers fantastic propulsive rhythms and use of accents and ghost notes somehow make the formula feel more alive and organic. Nothing Collapses also has a unique sense of youthfulness, something most overly serious post-rock albums lack. Two songs on the album feature low mixed gang vocals, all producing an intense feeling of camaraderie.
“I’m not coming home / I’m never coming home!”
This is not to say the album is without faults,though. As creative as they are song structure wise, Oceans still suffers from the stand post-rock song structure of soft-loud-soft-louder. In the hands of most bands this is the easiest way to keep any album from rising out of the sludge of post-rock albums being released. Thankfully Oceans has managed a way to keep it interesting after all this time. The production of the album is not something i'm particularly fond of, either. The drum sounds are crisp, but the bass drum is extremely loud in the mix, and oftentimes sounds triggered, which can distract from the melody. The distorted guitars, while I understand their depth in the mix, sound compressed a little too much to impact as much as they could. The biggest flaw is how deep the beautiful, aching violin parts that are scattered throughout the album are. Unless you're listening for it specifically, it oftentimes gets lost amidst the guitars.
Despite the few missteps, Oceans has brought a huge breath of fresh air towards avid post-rock listeners. I, for one, am certainly glad they won't be the collapse of the genre.
