Muscle & Bone

Peace & Light

Written by: PP on 08/12/2014 23:48:06

Muscle & Bone can appropriately be grouped within the revivalist emo scene, even if their songs don't necessarily fall squarely within the Midwestern I don't even care style emo primarily propelled by the efforts of Count Your Lucky Stars Records. Instead, the band rely on similarly soothing guitar/vocal interplay as Tigers Jaw among others. "Peace & Light" is the North Carolina based band's debut album, who counts ex-members of Fairground Avenue and Joie De Vivre among its members.

"Peace & Light" is one of those albums where you best be paying attention or the whole record will pass you by completely unnoticed. The vast majority of melodies are unassuming and nondescript, yet hide a surprising amount of depth within the slow, quiet, but still intricate instrumentation. The softly sung vocals don't offer much redemption either, often relying on equally low-key melodies almost as if they are trying to hide from too much attention. A song like "I Am An Oak" is as introverted as it is shy, yet if you listen closely, the song's core melody is actually quite great. But this is the fundamental problem found across the whole album - the songs just pass by unnoticed way too easily. So unless you're wearing headphones and concentrating fully on the band and the band only, you're going to miss out on everything they are trying to do. This is a problem in today's ADD driven society, but also because there are other bands playing this exact style while providing something spectacular in the process (see: any Tigers Jaw record ever).

Here, Muscle & Bone are almost too nondescript in their style of songwriting; they should definitely find ways to make their music more powerful either emotionally or instrumentally to make a proper impact. For now, it's easy to hear the Mineral and Sunny Day Real Estate echoes at the back of their soundscape, only to notice that you're on track seven while you thought you had just begun with the first one. A little bit less introverted sound would do the band wonders.

Download: XO, Song For Broken Teeth, I Am An Oak
For the fans of: Tigers Jaw, Joie De Vivre, Dowsing
Listen: Facebook

Release date 27.05.2014
Black Numbers

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