Review Summary: ...Of Sinking Ships have crafted an album that finds meaning in the whispers, proving that there is beauty in the journey rather than the destination.
...Of Sinking Ships is an interesting creation. Formed by Chad Waldrup of hopesfall fame, he is the one and only member of this project. Hopesfall was a melodic hardcore band with a strong inclination towards more clean/ambient guitar passages, and one can hear the similarities in this album. The ambient interludes and melodic songwriting that was used sparingly and just for effect on "The Satellite Years" is in full force here. As he was the guitarist for his former band, much of the music to be found on this is very guitar-driven, with very little thought put into the rhythm section. Since this is an instrumental effort, it makes for a very challenging listen. This is most certainly music that takes you on a voyage, rather than the focus being put on actually arriving at a destination. It is meandering, with guitar lines being the driving force behind most of the songwriting. Unlike bands like Giants or Explosions in the Sky, there are no valleys and peaks for the most part. When you expect the songs within this album to reach a climax and provide an epic ending, most of the time they simply fade out, leaving you without a feeling of fulfillment. Though this issue does seem like a deal-breaker in the valuation of an album, there are incredible moments of blissful beauty on this record, allowing for it shine through if listened to in the right context.
The first song of this album, "The Last Signal...", starts off with one of most hypnotizing guitar lines of the album. It is a very haunting introduction to this album. While this song does have a central sound and does not deviate from its path, it does not indicate a weakness. The simplicity in the songwriting actually accentuates the low key styling of the album, and provides a cyclical and flowing listen. One of the more interesting things regarding Waldrup's involvement with hopesfall before this project is the reference points that one can draw between this and the other band's material. While "The Satellite Years" used distortion primarily, with more ambient guitar sounds to break up the monotony, it is exactly the opposite here. Distortion is used as an accent to create a multi-dimensional soundscape on some songs, such as second track "It Never Mattered to You". It is gentle and plodding, but brilliant in its brevity. The low distortion in the background segues perfectly into "The Circumstances", which gives the album a very relaxed-and-floating-down-the-river feel to it.
Solo efforts are always interesting to listen to, if for no other reason than to listen to the uncompromising vision of one person. One of the great attributes of this particular album is that the sound is very light and airy. Where many bands of the same genre end up sounding dense and overwrought, this is for the most part a very expansive album that gives the listener room to breathe. Good examples of this upbeat, almost poppy style are the songs, "The Spargo Twin" and "With One More for Company". The latter of these shows a natural progression into an older Modest Mouse-style picked guitar riff, and then developing that riff into a cascading, flowing, and ultimately beautiful ending to the song. That particular song, in effect, is a good representation of what works on "...Of Sinking Ships" as a whole. It is the idea that music is not meant to take you to a specific destination, but sometimes only to take you on journey, forcing you to notice the small but beautiful details you would have otherwise missed.
...Of Sinking Ships have created an album full of interesting songs, but there are a few issues that do stop this from being an all-encompassing, brilliant listen. The repetition of the album is bound to bore most people that are looking for a more "dangerous" listen, something a bit darker that does not dwell in the sunshine-soaked world of clean guitar tones and simple cymbal crashes. That is the true downfall of the album in general, as it is bound to feel very similar in some parts. With an active listener that is not expecting extreme build-ups, there are many beautiful and ethereal moments to enjoy that do morph into crescendos of sorts, such as the end of "The Spargo Twin". ...Of Sinking Ships have crafted an album that finds meaning in the whispers, proving that there is beauty in the journey rather than the destination.
