Review Summary: Pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty good.
For a while now I'd probably say my favourite screamo record is Mesa Verde's "The Old Road". It had the perfect amount of loud and quiet moments, it was emotive, the lyrics were inspired and musically it was spine-tingling. Having heard they'd disbanded, I needed to find another band capable of conjuring up songs, hell, even sections of songs remotely like 'Post Youth'. With Beau Navire I found that band.
Vocally, Beau Navire are impassioned, powerful and up there with some of the best. I often find that some screamo bands pull off the weaker screams purely because they sound so raw and desperate. Beau Navire are no amateurs but the screams are just as passionate as any teenager yelling in their parents basement. With no hint of a tired voice on the verge of breaking, Trei Campbell sounds like he could shout and scream all day.
At their loudest, they remind me of a less intense Ampere. Unlike their veteran compatriots, they welcome melodic, mellow-er sections and even songs that are entirely dedicated to soothing guitar play and whispered spoken word sections in both Respire (Meta) and Respire (Sync). "Hours" is incredibly varied but songs never feel out of place; in fact it's a very cohesive piece of music. As previously mentioned, there are the instrumental parts, the quieter parts, the typical make-as-much-noise-as-you-can tracks parts and it all works very well. The second half of '"It's Not An Art, It's A Myth"' has a catchy, prominent bass line and the guitar play over the top twinkles away. The title track 'Hours' perfectly defines and encompasses everything on the album. A sombre melody is picked before exploding into chaos as bombastic as any Ampere song - drum rolls, tortured screams, huge guitars - "Hours" as an album is defined.
Listening to a lot of screamo / emo / whatever bands, there are some / lots / whatever, that sound pretty similar but then you get this which every genre of music. Some will be awful but others will be a master of mimicry and impress anyway. If it's done well, great but if it's done very well and manages to sound almost unlike anything else, superb.
