Review Summary: Drifting in and out of time.
It was tough to sit down and do this. After the absolute
disaster that was
Fangs! I just had totally lost faith in Falling Up.
Captiva was a weak record but at least it showed promise in songs like “Hotel Aquarium” and “Murexa”. Fangs! was virtually the Jesse Ribordy show with some guitars and any standout moment was somehow totally ruined.
Your Sparkling Death Cometh just didn’t appeal to me in any way whatsoever. But I decided to give the band another chance and just dive into the record.
Jesse Ribordy, thank the Lord, sounds much better than he did on the previous record and more like a mixture of the second and fourth record. His voice also newly cracks at times and it actually adds a sense of realism, much more so than the forced “kid in the candy store” approach of the last album. He sounds so much more confident, even in the “weaker” moments. He thankfully spares the listener from his horrid, screeching screams and the unbearable distortion effect that went with them as well. The guitars? Hmmm… THE GUITARS ARE BACK! No, really, they are back. Not barely used as they were on
Captiva, not edited out to the point of losing staying power or ruined by Jesse’s garbled screams a la
Fangs!, but actually play a key role from the get go. Before you ask, yes ladies and gentleman, Falling Up’s rock edge is back and here to stay. This is a major positive and much needed return for the group. The bass again plays a greater role, pretty much the only positive of
Fangs!, but the drums are just standard fare for Falling Up: never bad, just only occasionally noteworthy. Remember the tacky, overused bloops and bleeps from the previous two albums that grew very grating much too fast? Thankfully, they are toned down and used so much more tastefully this time, complementing the tracks rather than dominating them. There’s also an added string presence, adding an epic feel that can’t help but remind of RED.
Let me be as blunt as possible: “Circadian” is absolutely gorgeous. It is easily the best album opener the band has written and perhaps is one of the best I have heard. It effectively blends passionate yet pensive vocals with epic, haunting yet rising strings, heavy Drop D guitars, a borderline-solo lead, and an ending similar to RED’s “Feed The Machine”. This is where we begin to realize that this won’t be another failure of an album. “The Wonder” and “Blue Ghost” are also superb tracks, replete with more lead guitar presence, a bit of riffage here and there, fantastic vocals, even some bass fills. “Blue Ghost” manages to also tastefully blend in some atmospheric synths. “Light-Beam Rider” plays the absolute heck out of quiet-loud dynamics: the track slowly lures you in, and then absolutely explodes. There’s just a growing form of tension in the verses, and then the chorus just hits like a bomb, taking cues from both Chevelle and Tool while still being more melodic than either. This song is just plain intriguing: the dual guitar lines, the lyrics, the subtle use of double bass, all of it.
Unfortunately, that’s where all these positives end. YSDC has so much boring filler and copy-cat moments, leaving songs that aren’t necessarily bad but surely don’t stand out. That is the biggest issue here: the replete reusing of song structures a la Crashings, as well as the fact that some songs just drag on for too long and repeat themselves within themselves too much. Lyrically, this a major relief from
Fangs!. I guess this could be considered some type of a concept album, and while the lyrics are ambiguous, they aren’t so dependent on the narrative that they don’t make sense individually and aren’t relatable as a whole. RED’s
End of Silence album is similar: it’s a journey from darkness to light and feels like it throughout the listen, but you can also pick out individual songs to jam and feel to.
Why a 3? Why did I rank this so low for all the praise? Here’s the thing: if this was an EP, then I would probably give it a 4. But the issue is it is an album, and a deeply flawed one at that. Honestly
Dawn Escapes is a better record to me, and I cannot in good conscious rank
Your Sparkling Death Cometh on the same level or higher when it is clearly the inferior album. At the same time, I do have to give some props to the group here. This soars over the last album and barely scrapes over the fourth effort, and there are actually worthwhile moments to be had. I just wish this had been an EP, because although its an improvement, Falling Up still have a lot of growing up to do.
