Save Your Breath

Recover EP

Written by: TL on 24/12/2012 16:01:31

Moving on we've got us such a rare thing as a (relatively) accomplished British pop-punk band in Save Your Breath, who managed to surpass the level of most of their domestic counterparts when they actually got some recognition and attention for their debut LP Vices. They didn't get so from me however, seeing as "Vices" never really caught my attention, and you could say that makes me poorly suited to review their recent EP "Recover" if it wasn't because the aptly titled EP sees the band starting halfway from scratch with new members on drums and guitar.

There's that and then there's the fact that Save Your Breath do not seem out to do anything particularly innovative with pop-punk as a genre, as much as they seem to just want to play to its and their strenghts, mainly keeping things fast, melodic and energetic. There's delightful muscle to the lower end of the sound on "Recover" as well however, with the bass and rhythm guitar weighing in nicely, giving the band a good, full sound that helps catchy highlights like "Recover", "Maps" and "2004" align with recent promising pop-punk bands like Living With Lions, Me Vs. Hero and City Lights.

Things thus work best, when a hint of force is kept both in the instrumental side, but also in the vocals, which mostly sound like they're sung with the kind of throat-stretching power and conviction genre-aficionados will know from 'easycore' bands like Four Year Strong (before their last album of course). I'm not so much a fan of the result when the singing occasionally become a bit too sugary, like in moments during "Skeleton Key" and "Touchpaper" - not because I don't appreciate the attempt at contrast, rather because I don't think the band pulls it off convincingly/consistently enough, and especially the chorus to the former song is almost a little annoying to me.

Other than that, allow me to spend this single sentence on wondering what in the world is the deal with the eerie, grungy "Ceremony" at track five, which is just completely different from anything else on the EP, and which does not even seem to do anything in terms of setting up the following "Touchpaper". It's not necessarily a bad listen, it just hardly makes any sense at all on this album, and you have to hope that Save Your Breath find a better way to implement it, if they're going to experiment like this moving on. Other than that though, "Recover" is another solid pop-punk release from their hand, stating that clearly the band is still alive. The songs might not have the staying power to have you returning weeks into the future, but they are definitely the kind you will recognise almost instantly if you hear the band or see them at a show in the future.

7

Download: Living With Lions, Me Vs Hero, City Lights
For The Fans Of: Maps, 2004, Recover,
Listen: facebook.com/saveyourbreath

Release Date 10.08.2012
Gold Records

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