Review Summary: An expansive putty of heartbreak, political outrage and nostalgia.
Breaking news! An asteroid is heading straight for Earth. The oceans are boiling bloody red, and the twenty dollar American Spirit that you inhaled for breakfast just funded a shiny new toy for a trigger happy soldier. Nice going,
idiot. On top of that, you're 20k in debt, and your girl just left you to drive back to Washington.
I swear things used to be better than this.
Heartbreak, political outrage and nostalgia are all huddled at the very center of
The Long Bright Dark—the debut full-length from St. Louis, Missouri band Interpersonal. Everything is laid out in equal measure as the band explores a diverse range of sounds from post-hardcore to shoegaze, emo and pop-punk. It's almost hard not to turn this into a track-by-track review, because in all honesty, every song on this album deserves mention, as they all culminate into this expansive putty of styles and emotions that change shape and click into place like scenes from your favourite VHS.
Funnily enough,
The Long Bright Dark begins with an ending, almost as if someone forgot to rewind the tape. "Washington" nudges the band into action with a gentle intro, recounting goodbyes before the band explodes into soaring post-rock tremolos and a declaration of new beginnings. It's like walking in on the precise moment that the snake decided to start eating it's tail. Don't let the pretty guitars fool you though, because "Become Death" completely pulls the rug out from under our feet (and the wool from our eyes) with an aggressive homage to
Artist In The Ambulance era Thrice, right down to the pounding bass tone and strained vocals. "Spiral" then sees the band taking yet another left turn, turning suicidal ideation into a satirically cheerful pop-punk slogan (
"Christine, I think I'm gonna buy a gun. Here for a good time, not a long time") which precedes a high energy bridge that almost sounds like it could have come from a secular Relient K.
This constant shifting of direction might sound jarring to some, but the band really ties these ideas together in a way that is memorable and exciting, like the melodic leads of "Out Of Time" that feel so damn triumphant and rewarding climbing out of the cynical gaze of "Alabaster". The two interlude tracks are also fantastic at enhancing the kinetic flow of emotion during the album. First we have the nostalgic warmth of "Seconds, Minutes, Hours", full of field recordings of voices and gentle synths that sound vaguely as if someone left the Final Fantasy menu theme droning away in the living room, and then "Loss", which moves the album into the closing song with an incredibly moving cello and piano performance that just completely embodies the feeling of grief.
This might be Interpersonal's debut full-length, but
The Long Bright Dark is the sound of a band with a high degree of confidence in their creative choices—and the buttery smooth production to back it all up. The mix is just ace, and Lyle Schmitz's voice absolutely shines in the center, especially during moments where he lets go of restraint and allows his inner rage to surface (the entire second half of "Genocider" gives me goosebumps). The rest of the band also sounds so dynamic and fluid as they stretch between different ends of the post-hardcore spectrum. For an album that is only 29 minutes long, it sure feels a lot longer, and I can't think of any other time that has been used as a compliment. Usually this is the result of tedium, but in Interpersonal's case, the album is just so immersive that I lost track of time and felt rudely awoken by the fact that it did, in fact, have to end. Right back where we began I guess.
And now we start again.
