Review Summary: The Lack Long After
Definitely not the most innovative screamo act of the the last five years, nor even the most interesting member of the 'wave' they are often attributed to, Pianos Become The Teeth nonetheless have always had a truly great record lying somewhere within them. The closest would be Old Pride, a thrilling album for the most part, with Kyle Durfey's vocals teetering on the edge of an almost inescapable hole on misery and grief, his voice quavering as the fractured, dissonant guitars unite behind his passionate scream. Lyrically, it's a dense, dark experience that would serve as the inspiration for the more developed sounds of The Lack Long After, an album that, despite bone-chilling instrumentals (Liquid Courage), was a bit too melodramatic, especially vocally.
And, following their split with Touche Amore, in which the horrible mediocrity of Durfey's clean vocals were revealed, it was of great disappointment for me to learn that the new album, Keep You, would be the band's first to lack any of the harsh fragility of his raw, guttural bellow. While undoubtedly emotionally affecting, lead single Repine encouraged only a nonchalant shrug of 'eh' as the very flat sounding clean vocals drone on over a repetitive looped guitar. The material here doesn't have much in common with the genre they're generally associated with, and instead would sit comfortably with something like Mallory Knox or Deaf Havana's slower material. I'm not chastising the band for trying new things, but when even their previously very hard-hitting lyrics are dragged down to The Here And Now era Architects type stuff in some places (that's what the sing along elements of Repine remind me of) it's clear that they've made the wrong choice.
And listening to any other song off this has roughly the same effect. Ripple Water Shrine couldn't be any more flimsy, discarding any semblance of post rock for almost pop-punk song structures rocking guitar sections so sparse and thinly spread that any appearance put in by the bass and drums outshine them any every turn. The drums here actually sound great, and have retained the awesome cymbal sound present on Old Pride that unfortunately are under-utilised here as part of a non-existent atmosphere. It's only four songs in, on highlight Old Jaw, that anything even remotely interesting happens and even then it's only the traditional emo guitar dweedles and the odd synth to create a false impression of complexity. The song-writing had taken a downturn, and the fact that these are the shortest songs the band has ever written thus far shows a distinct lack of enthusiasm for creativity within this set of songs. There's not been much thought in the track sorting process here, and the way the songs are grouped together makes it very hard to distinguish one languid chorus from another.
Things perk up a (tiny) bit by track seven. Enamor Me is a top track in the band's discography with an infectious hook that lacks the overbearing nature of its peers, while the pitter patter of Traces' drums evoke the quasi-urgent message of Durfey's cry of:
'I'm tired of the way everyone talks about everything'
Then there's The Queen. Here the whole band appear to suddenly come to life for the first time, as if they've been charging their batteries for the previous twenty five odd minutes. Then on Say Nothing, the scream that appears around three minutes in brings an unforeseen and dramatically game changing dynamic. Unfortunately, the song lasts about three minutes longer than it should, and even without vocals it's a challenge not to skip.
Vocal-less, this would be quite a profound album that breaks zero new ground, explores territory where it's not wanted and is willing to accept its place as a very generic emo/alt-rock album. But with such a dreary narrator, the band offer music even less exciting than the other big disappointment of the year, melodic hardcore upstarts More Than Life. Both bands can be classified as examples of groups initially achieving success off their lyrics, and not their instruments or writing, and when that dynamic disappears floundering for a new sound so desperately it comes off as ugly and messy.
