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Review Summary: Despite having its moments, Rooms Of The House takes a little bit too close to heart the concept at its core. There’s undeniably something lacking in La Dispute’s latest LP Rooms of the House. While Somewhere at the Bottom… is widely regarded as one of the most melodramatic examples of post-hardcore in the entire genre, it still had moments of emotional relevance and passion that hit home and made us relate to the lyrics being recited throughout the songs. Wildlife was much the same, recounting tales that, paradoxically, are set quite literally in the situations surrounding them but expressed the universal heartbreak many, I believe, feel at some of the pivotal moments of their lives; the loss of a family member or a dear friend, a tragedy that occurs on the street that you grew up on, or (more specifically in Jordan’s case) the breakup of what was a very passionate and meaningful relationship and the regret that comes afterwards. Staged around the concept of the rooms of a house and how they take on the memories and the personalities of those who lived within them, Rooms of the House, while still a decent record, falls disappointingly short of engaging the listener as much in what’s going on, instead walking them through the events that the lyrics portray. It feels less like being an active participant and more like an outsider looking in.
Musically, there’s a definitive sense of toning down taking place in Rooms of the House, and the word maturation, somewhat of an easily thrown-around buzzword and a cliché among music reviews, comes to mind: the guitarwork is definitely paired back and has less of darker sound while still retaining a sepia-toned melancholic tinge (best expressed in "35"), but only reaches the melodic heights of Wildlife in tracks like "First Reactions After Falling Through Ice" or "Stay Happy There". In other tracks like "Scenes From Highways 1981 – 2009" the guitars and drums fade somewhat into the background and take a figurative backseat to Dreyer’s lyrics, and this, combined with the not so engrossing storytelling, leads certain parts of the album feeling less like the passionate outbursts that hit their zenith in Wildlife and more like filler in what is already a comparatively short album. By effectively reducing the bigger and more expansive themes dealt with in Wildlife and trying to fit them into the smaller and more confined arena of the typical suburban household, La Dispute is made to feel just a little bit too tame.
Dreyer’s lyricism is still on point however, with the bouncy and well thought-out cadence of his writing shining through in tracks like "Woman (Reading)" and "Woman (In Mirror)", while there are the occasional flashes of the emotionally charged recital which made a significant part of Wildlife in tracks like the anticlimatic closer "Objects in Space". Overall however, Rooms of the House just doesn’t seem to have the weight as its predecessors did, with a vital closeness just not being achieved in the stories recounted through-out the album. It seems La Dispute’s choice to focus on domestic relationships gives the album the same, bleached feeling of domesticity itself; restricted and just a little bit dull.
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Album Rating: 3.0
Literally the first review I've written for this site so any criticism at all is appreciated.
| | | Album Rating: 3.5
nawwwwwwww you must've written something before
| | | Album Rating: 3.5
Very experimental review. I like how you replaced almost every period with a comma. Bold.
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"Dreyer’s lyricism is still on point however, with the bouncy and well-though out cadence of his writing shining through in tracks like Woman (Reading) and Woman (In Mirror), while there are the occasional flashes of the emotionally charged recital which made a significant part of Wildlife in tracks like Objects in Space, but overall Rooms of the House just doesn’t seem to have the weight as its predecessors did, with a vital closeness just not being achieved in the stories recounted through-out the album."
dayum fishing you aint lying lol
| | | Album Rating: 4.5
Great review dude.
| | | Album Rating: 3.0
Yeeeeeaah reading this now I realise my sentences are just a biiit long. Always had very long
sentences in anything I've written-- it's just part of my style. Edited a little bit to break it up a
little and fix minor errors.
| | | Album Rating: 3.5
Edits help a lot, have a pos
With that said, I'm about to be a prick. Take it productively. Run-on sentences are not a part of
any style. You're just being lazy. The problem is that you had some actual intelligent thought going
on here, but because I had to make sense of a forest of commas, God knows if I could decipher it.
That's a fucking shame.
If you have a sentence with two parts, either one of which can stand by itself, the majority of the
time, you should edit it into two separate sentences. Almost always, the more concise your ideas
are, the more powerfully they are expressed.
Exercise: I've replaced all but one "and" and "but" with a period, and made a few other minor edits
to your intro paragraph. Read your version of the review out loud, and then read my version below
out loud. Tell me which one is clearer, more concise, and more effective.
There’s undeniably something lacking in La Dispute’s latest LP Rooms of the House. While Somewhere
at the Bottom… is widely regarded as one of the most melodramatic examples of post-hardcore in the
entire genre, it still had moments of passion that hit home. Wildlife was much the same, recounting
tales that are set literally in the situations surrounding them but expressing the universal
heartbreak many feel during pivotal moments of their lives. La Dispute's sound embodied the loss of
a family member or a dear friend, a tragedy that occurs on the street that you grew up on, or-in
Jordan’s case-the breakup of a passionate relationship and the regret that comes afterwards. Rooms
of the House is staged around the concept of the rooms of a house and how they take on the memories
and the personalities of those who lived within them. While the concept holds relevance, it falls
disappointingly short of engaging the listener in exactly what is going on
inside those walls. The record instead walks the listener through the events that the lyrics
portray. It feels less like being an active participant and more like an outsider looking in.
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