Review Summary: Dog Days
Miles Michaud- guitar, piano, vocals
Pedrum Siadatian- guitar, vibes, vocals
Spencer Dunham- bass, vocals
Matthew Correia- drums, percussion, vocals
Allah Las’s new record Worship the Sun semi-effectively conveys the sun drenched Californian landscape. It’s warm and lively west coast garage rock vibe creates a chilled atmosphere that soothes the soul. It’s solem pace is really easy to fall asleep to because it’s passive energy never changes. But too much of anything is a bad thing, and the amount of influences Allah Las takes advantage of is ridiculous. Miles and company have delivered an album that’s consistently great at what it sets out to do, but fails to innovate or add anything original to the genre it takes so much from.
Worship the Sun’s warm and inviting guitar tones really draws the listener in. They’re most definitely subdued, which creates a relaxing listening experience. If the guitars were too harsh or abrasive, then the whole chill west coast vibe Allah Las were going for would have been ruined. But it would have given the album the musical diversity it so desperately needs. The guitar solos while never flashy are still a welcomed change of pace that break up the monotonous nature of most of the tracks. Matthew Correia’s drumming serves as the backbone to all the songs, although his technique is rather basic at best. Mathew sometimes mixes up his standard drumming with memorable beats or fills. Many of the tracks sound similar, so trying to differentiate one track from the other can be a very difficult task. Had it All sounds like a ripoff of quite a few songs classic sixties songs, with one particular Beatles song coming to mind.
Miles Michaud’s vocals are pretty average. Everything is soft and hushed, and while his pitch changes every once in a while, no emotion is conveyed well through his singing. An obvious influence on Mile’s singing style are early sixties pop bands. His vocals really don’t hold their own on the album, resulting in some of the best tracks on the album being the instrumentals. Backing vocals are hindered by the same problems, they are simply too squeaky clean. There are no risks or liberties taken with Worship the Sun, they bring nothing new to the table, effectively becoming a knock off of their influences. The ho hum vocal harmonies also drag the album down, because of their severe lack of energy. A highlight on the album is definitely the backing vocals on Follow You Down, which consisted of harmonized sounds that are hushed and boisterous at the same time. A refreshing addition to Worship the Sun’s vocal content.
Worship the Sun is a very uniform release, so none of the tracks really stand out. The album just meshes together into an enjoyable yet bland experience. It never strives for greatness, therefore it has no chance to succeed on it’s own. Worship the Sun doesn’t work as an isolated piece of art, because every track is oozing with influences from older and better bands. Allah Las like every other modern band decided to go back to their roots or influences, but they forget what made those bands so memorable in the first place. Bands like the Kinks or The Zombies were innovative and original at the time. Allah Las’s new album adds nothing unique to the original formula it follows irritatingly close, resulting in a mind numbingly average record.
