Review Summary: A creative mishmash of styles that proves to be very engaging and unique.
Five years after releasing 'Catholic Guilt or The Queerest of Thoughts', Adam has released his sophomore effort 'Teenagers, You Don't Have To Die', and it revives much of the odd magic of the debut, while adding new flavors and inspirations, most of which come from the addition of Trophy Scars drummer Brian Ferrara and the inclusion of many other familiar musicians throughout the album.
Teenagers is a mix of styles from the clearly Sparklehorse inspired 'A Healthy Fear Of Women' to the very Trophy Scars-like 'Even The Dogs Stare' which boasts a clever mashup of bluesy guitars, Piano, and deep vocals with Post-Hardcore undertones. In many cases Adam seems to reference his other projects while weaving his own blend of psychedelic heartbreak into the mix. Songs like 'Where's My Upslope?' callback to Fear Before, while the keys and melodies will sound familiar to any fan of ORBS. It's this mix of influences and familiarity that make this album so fantastic and memorable.
The absolutely gorgeous 'Desert Foxes Play Under a Sky Full of Stars' is one of the standout tracks on the album. Its near six minute runtime takes the album down a slow and atmospheric detour driven by the addition of musician Toy Pony. This however is not the only 'detour' on the album, songs like the unnerving 'Night Swimmer (Camp Ohio)' really help to add character to the album and keep things interesting. While tracks like 'I'm Afraid' and 'And So Peter Dances...' would fit perfectly on the previous album, mostly everything here is unique and stands on its own which greatly adds to the album's replayability. Where teenagers improves on the debut is the inclusion of many satisfying climaxes that seemed to be lacking on Catholic Guilt.
Like the debut, a notable aspect of the album are the weird and well thought out lyrics; odd metaphors, themes of loneliness, and a clear sense of direction and consistency really aid the album's ability to be consistently impressive, even after repeated listens. Additionally, the instrumentation is very interesting as each song has a completely different vibe to it. Some songs are driven by pianos while some are mainly guitars and keyboards and this variation really helps the album sound interesting.
It should be no surprise that Adam has succeeded in crafting such a unique and intelligent album after the clear potential shown on his debut album. Whether or not Adam will continue to release albums under the name All Human is unknown, but it will definitely be hard to surpass what has been achieved here, and i am very optimistic that he will.
