Listening diary 1st April, 2022: Falling Up - Dawn Escapes (alternative rock, 2005)
I definitely wasn't expecting this one to be good. Falling Up's humble beginnings are well-
known to fans, and rather sadly seem to be what they are remembered for in some quarters - as
it stands, the juvenile Christian rap-rock of *Crashings *has more RYM ratings than the
excellent art rock of Your Sparkling Death Cometh or the self-titled. I was expecting this
one to be more of the same from the debut, but this is already a strong evolution, and I
would say even has hints of their late-era glory already.
This is the heaviest album they ever did, but strangely some of that heaviness, often lifted
from alt and nu metal, absolutely works in this context. At its absolute best, this sounds
like early Karnivool, with the same sorts of nu metal riffs, but married with strong
melodies, using the genre's high intensity to its advantages. The hooks are there too - not
as plentiful or as developed as later on, but still strong and still incredibly well
performed. And more importantly, there's none of the christian rap segments from the first
album here. In fact, this is a surprisingly mature album from a band who just came out of
that phase, and it set them up nicely for a long and fascinating career.
7.0 (5th listen)
Bump |
