The Exit, a trio from New York City, have been making quite a name for themselves with their sophomore release “A Home for An Island.”
This album is hard to put into a genre. To simply classify it as rock and roll will not do it justice. The Exit takes melodic “island” rhythms, as they have described them, and mixes them with rough New York guitar riffs. It may be hard to conceive, but somehow they pull it together in the best possible fashion. They captivate listeners with catchy vocals, out-of-nowhere breakdowns and musical changes, making everything unpredictable. The CD takes melodic parts that don’t seem like they flow together, and make them do just that, almost as if they have no choice.
The Exit aren’t your normal whiny “emo-core” band writing about getting their hearts broken (that’s not an insult, I listen to and love that music myself). This band just simply takes things straight from their lives that almost everyone can relate to and put them to catchy tunes.
The CD changes moods from song to song. “We want to create an ultimate mix tape every time we make an album,” The Exit said. Each song seems to capture a different emotion and with that, tries to make the listeners feel for or agree with the band.
The band takes situations right out of every day life, which can be shown in track eight, entitled “Solider,” which is a song loosely about the events of 9/11 and the war on terror. Specifically it’s about the emotions any normal human being might have gone through since 9/11. Although, this may be a slow, acoustic song it still hits hard. “I’ve seen war, I’ve seen the headlines fall from the sky, just like the planes hit…” The harmonica in this song helps bring everything together, making this a very powerful song.
This band pretty much shows they knew a lot about music just from tracks one to ten, but when they break into a reggae-like song entitled “So Leave Then.” They push the boundaries that much more. The steel drums in the bridge are a great addition to this song, and the CD. The Exit obviously do not want to stick to one genre of music, and it’s apparent on this CD. They seem to be writing whatever they feel like writing, and its working.
The final song on the CD is one of the most notable on the whole album. “Already gone,” started out mellow to the point that I didn’t know if I wanted to finish it, but halfway through when it jumped into a heavy guitar part out of no where, it got my attention again. It may just be that the four songs prior to this one are sort of slow, but this one caught my attention a lot more than other songs on the CD. It’s a very good choice to end a CD with.
Overall, the first two-thirds of this CD will really catch a person’s ear. The memorable, almost poppy, choruses could leave you singing for days. However, the last four songs seem to tone down the aggressiveness. Although, these songs still show signs of musical excellence, I would not be surprised if some people only listened to two-thirds of this CD.
The Exit does a phenomenal job of creating a CD that will stick with most listeners. The “out-of-nowhere” rhythmic changes leave audiences guessing as to what will happen next. The band has succeeded in creating an unpredictable album that will leave listener’s ears wanting more.
To find more information on The Exit, please visit, www.theexitrock.com
