Review Summary: Can’t We Stay Inside?
What gives an artist the title of generational talent? If you were to ask me I’d say it’s the ability to transcend perception and environment. Many of the current crop of indie musicians are just hitting the prime of their collective young adulthood and many struggle to be heard, either by their ascendents or society as a whole. Of course, every generation struggles in a similar fashion, their musical expression especially finding itself under fire for being either too derivative or too unusual. Do I think it’s a fair assessment of today’s generation of musicians? Well, if we’re taking into account the recent rise of young bands like Racing Mount Pleasant into consideration, I’d tell you no, not at all.
Now past the halfway point of the 2020’s, young artists struggle more than ever to find a voice that will penetrate the desensitized hearts of a human population with everything at its fingertips. Yet despite all of that, the former Kingfisher from Ann Arbor, Michigan managed to tell us a genuine story with their debut, “Grip Your Fist, I’m Heaven Bound,” that could give even the most jaded of music fans something to look forward to for the future. Upon their rechristening as Racing Mount Pleasant, the band has taken their story even further. If “Grip Your Fist” was a warm hello, their self-titled sophomore album is an invitation into their home.
RMP’s approach to music is rooted in their personal experiences as a band, the album playing less like a collection of songs and more like a cinematic score of their lives. Light woodwinds and brass, weaving violin and cello, folksy guitars, crashing cymbals and sentimental lyrics all paint a refreshingly honest portrait of young adulthood navigating the tribulations of growth and reflecting on the past. This is not to say the album follows a concrete story, but instead the music seems to beckon us into the apartment where and when these songs were written and rehearsed by the band members.
The album opens much in the same way as their previous release, with a touching saxophone intro before Sam DuBose begins to sing. This same melody is used again to bookend the album’s closer, “Your Old Place,” quite nicely. That being said, callbacks and repetition are prevalent in both the album’s music and the lyrics. For example, the line “You’re the one that needs a body” on the title track harkens back to the previous album’s title track “Grip Your Fist.” Concepts like the 34th floor apartment mentioned in the opener are brought up again in the instrumental track, “34th Floor.”
Album standouts like Emily and the title track are multilayered with light and heavy sections of strings that give each song an almost cinematic feel to them. Songs like “Seyburn,” though shorter and more stripped down in their composition, are somehow just as welcome as the longer and more instrumentally filling arrangements. The occasional rock moments like on “Outlast” transition well without overpowering or feeling out of place next to the more commonly slow and sentimental areas. The tempo changes, though at times sudden, are never unwelcome. Despite being a newer band, the production is great enough that all of the instruments fit perfectly in place with one another, beautifully coexistent like the group of friends playing them for us.
To conclude I’ll say “Racing Mount Pleasant” is a remarkable album if not for any other reason than how genuine it is. The band members came together and wrote one of the most endearing and creative indie releases of the decade so far, not to make some grandiose statement or because a studio rushed them into doing so, but because they wanted to. This doesn’t feel like an album to be picked apart and analyzed track by track, but more so like a time and place to be experienced in its entirety as did the band while recording it. How Racing Mount Pleasant defies our perceptions is with sincerity, a reoccurring theme in many young bands that have made waves in recent years. If there’s truly no gimmicks left to grab the listener’s attention, then all you can do is project yourself through what you create. If the members of Racing Mount Pleasant project themselves into their music like I believe they do, then they are very much so mature beyond their years.
Recommended tracks:
-Your New Place
-Emily
-Racing Mount Pleasant
-Your Old Place
