Anberlin Dark is the Way, Light is a Place |
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 | Tracklist:
1. We Owe This To Ourselves
2. Impossible
3. Take Me (As You Found Me)
4. Closer
5. You Belong Here
6. Pray Tell
7. Art of War
8. To the Wolves
9. Down
10. Depraved
| Ranking: #136 for 2010 | |
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On 67 Lists
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From the very start, Anberlin seemed like one of those bands destined for big lights and even bigger stages. Their stadium sized emotional alt-rock was always a little bit deeper and more well rounded than the teenage aesthetics and cheeky attitudes of other scenester turned mainstream acts such as Taking Back Sunday and My Chemical Romance, making a Jimmy Eat World sized crossover on to the radio dials of America an inevitability. Their 2008 release New Surrender took forever to get started, but when the single “Feel Good Drag”, a rerecorded number originally found on the group's album Never Take Friendship Personal, hit the FM waves it catapulted the Floridian quintet to a level of national fame that only seemed right, although some of the band's mainstay fans took issue with the increased number of lighter, poppier tracks on the album, seeing the slight stylistic shift as a lack of depth.
Dark Is the Way, Light Is a Place not only is Anberlin's first album to be released and recorded with the pressure of creating a worthy follow up to New Surrender's national buzz-album success, it's also a reactionary effort to answer the heckles that came from the internet peanut gallery. The result is a darker, more refined Anberlin. While, like every album to bear the Anberlin name, the main formula is relatively the same, Dark Is the Way, Light Is a Place sees the seemingly insipid side of the band that has always pockmarked their albums with songs like “Breathe”, “Breaking” and “Adelaide” put in the corner in favor of the arena sized ballads that always showcased the best of what the band has to offer, making it the spiritual kin of their 2007 release Cities. Stephen Christian is, like always, at his best. His angelic croon gently cascades over the beautifully wound musical landscape that his been laid out for him, soaring over the anthemic power chord sing-a-longs and nudging itself into every nook and cranny of the more intimate moments of delay driven atmospherics. Surprisingly, it is these more atmospheric moments where Dark Is the Way, Light Is a Place finds its own voice in waves of Joshua Tree era U2 pedal board infused grandiosity, that even the Edge himself would be proud of.
While Dark Is the Way, Light Is a Place isn't the album that will make long time fans of Anberlin still holding out for some sort of magnum opus from the band weak in the knees, it is the third straight near perfect album released by them, proving that when it comes to alternative rock at the start of this new decade, Anberlin is the cream at the top of the US radio-rock universe. Who knows where they'll go from here, but if they keep this level of creative consistency going, the sky is the limit.
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| Recent reviews by this author | | | |
So i herd this wuz gewd
| | | Album Rating: 4 | Sound Off
that it is
Digging: Love American - Disquiet | | | Album Rating: 3.5 | Sound Off
so this is a great review...
4 good reviews in a row for this album
Digging: Dead Congregation - Graves of the Archangels Digging: Dead Congregation - Graves of the Archangels | | |
great, great review
agree on the joshuua tree-era bit too
Digging: Andrew Bird - Break It Yourself Digging: Andrew Bird - Break It Yourself
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I remember REALLY liking a handful of songs from this band a couple years back; haven't listened to them in forever, though.... maybe it's time i got re-acquainted with them...
| | | Album Rating: 3.5
Nice review. Kinda short, but a nice little read nonetheless.
Digging: The Flashbulb - Arboreal Digging: The Flashbulb - Arboreal | | | Album Rating: 4 | Sound Off
holy crap, double feature.
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You're moving up in the world
| | | Album Rating: 4 | Sound Off
i hope this means i get double my pay.
| | | Album Rating: 4
still digesting this
Digging: Gotye - Making Mirrors Digging: Gotye - Making Mirrors | | | Album Rating: 3.5
Album is terribad. All of the songs sound the same, and all of Anberlin's charm is gone. Now they're just going through the motions.
| | | Album Rating: 3.5
2 x 0 = 0?
.... Why are new users always so.... Wrong?
| | | Album Rating: 4 | Sound Off
@Nomos: personally i think they get better with every album but to each their own.
| | | Album Rating: 4
??????
| | | Album Rating: 3.5
Lol he moved his rating from 1.5 to 2.5...
| | | Album Rating: 4 | Sound Off
he's entitled to his opinion. no big whoop
| | | Album Rating: 3.5
Blueprints & NTFP were masterpieces of catchy pop rock. I guess that's why I loved them to much in the first place. Ridiculously catchy stuff. Then Cities had a few slow songs, but a lot of great stuff....and...ever since it's just been a decline into slow, moody stuff that I guess I'm just not a fan of.
| | | Album Rating: 4
NTFP =/= masterpiece
| | | Album Rating: 3.5
Honestly slow and moody are two words which I would never use to describe New Surrender. I don't even think I've heard their older stuff though.
| | | Album Rating: 4
their work from cities to now has been a vast improvement on some of the stuff on NTFP and blueprints
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