Review Summary: nothing new, but it doesn't pretend to be - and with this kind of quality, nor does it need to be.
Whenever I'm recommended yet another post-rock album to listen to, with fans foaming at the mouth and swearing that this is different and completely unlike anything else, despite being essentially the same, I tend to just roll my eyes. Yes, it's probably one of my favorite genres but I've just been let down too many times before by people swearing that it's some kind of epiphany-inducing miracle. I don't want to hear about your experience listening to Explosions In The Sky that I'll probably never be able to share with you. I want to hear well-executed music with a heart. I'm happy to announce that Years of Rice & Salt deliver exactly that, and nothing but that. This isn't an innovative release, but the band doesn't claim it to be. This is a band doing what they love with little-to-no pretence involved, just incredibly enjoyable music.
You could say everything here has been done before, and to all intents and purposes, it has. But if we lived in a world where someone couldn't do music that someone else had done before, we may as well have burned all our instruments centuries ago. That said, there's still an undeniable fresh wind that
Nothing of Cities seems to reveal to us. The melodies and guitar-work is very EITS-esque, but there's something else behind it that I find is missing from the majority of their work. The builds and swells that Years of Rice and Salt incorporate are the kind of thing bands like this have been doing for decades now, but it never falls into the realm of boredom or predictability like many similar bands tread into far too often. The excellent orchestration of the brass and strings sections really offer a whole new dimension to this piece, and it never sounds as if it's thrown in for the sake of harbouring an artificial depth that just isn't there.
The thing that sets this album apart from its contemporaries is easily the band's sense of control. They never get too self-indulged in one idea before moving to the next, and they never overuse the same technique. They use a lot of techniques we're familiar with here, but it never feels like a cliché from the band just not being able to think of anything better. It just sounds like what came naturally to them in the song-writing stages. The album is very reserved and puts across its ideas in a way that makes it very accessible, but also has a lot of depth behind everything. It has a very relatable atmosphere, a very sunny and optimistic feel. It's the kind of thing you'd just put on and wander to, creating the perfect atmosphere for a daytime stroll, the breeze running right through you. Or just about anything, really. It's so relatable that it would work in any situation, and due to the band's reserve, it never outstays its welcome no matter when or how long you listen to it for. The band also have a very good ear for very, very good melodies that will stay with you for a long time after the album's runtime is over.
This isn't a post-rock album designed to totally re-invent the wheel, that's more than obvious. But for fans of the genre, there's no way you won't find something to really enjoy in this unless you're looking for something that isn't there. If you're truly looking for something new, post-rock probably isn't for you anyway. This is a beautiful, well executed and wonderfully enjoyable album full of optimistic, wonderful atmospheres and soundscapes that any fan of this style of music would be silly to pass up. If you don't go in looking for an epiphany, you'll find a really enjoyable 50 minutes that is more than worth your time. But who knows, maybe you'll find something here you've never seen before. In any case, this is one of the better post-rock albums this year, and a promising debut from a band that hopefully we'll see a lot more of in the coming years. In a time of post-rock bands that often try too hard to push the genre, it's nice to know that bands like this still know how to bring us what us post-rock fans love. Nothing new, but it doesn't pretend to be - and with this kind of quality, nor does it need to be.
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