I had a really hard time getting into the post-hardcore genre for a while, but bands like this opened my eyes to how passionate and engaging this style can be when properly executed. Rookie Town manage to meld emo, punk, and some rock into their sound creating an unusual hybrid of sounds that never gets boring as it shifts dynamically but never in way that doesn't sound as natural as the pictured landscape. The vocals feature an interplay of clean and pained yells/screams that recall Glassjaw or At The Drive-In, and backup vocals that infuse a punk hardcore aesthetic. The album remains brief at just over 24 minutes, but it is in that brevity that it retains incredible replay value. The songs themselves are never content to stick to a formula. Rookie Town prefers to let the songs write themselves instead of inposing a structure for the sake of it. New Forest Floors leaves you begging for more as the sounds of falling rain and acoustics in the outro fade to silence. Upon repeated listens I have only grow to enjoy this album more and more. Highly recommended.
2 Bumps | Bump |
