Susan Frances
01/20/08, 02:49 PM
Alcoholiday - Cheers Love EP
Record Label: Hella Tight Records
Release Date: December 9, 2007
The floating notes and airy synth textures that have come to describe shoegaze artists like Spaceman 3 and Lush is what you will find on Alcoholiday’s latest release Cheers Love from Hella Tight Records. The 6-track EP has series of electro-pop designs which vary in forms from being virtually static to landscaping dainty swells. The entire album has a calming feel like new age music making echoed grottos of pure effect-laden channels that move motionless while winged by soft lulling vocals. If you are looking for punk-based elements, it is rare, but you will find them in the grating, screams of lead vocalist/guitarist Braden McCall on the track “Judas Iscariot” and the quicken tempo of multi-instrumentalists Bryan Yazzie and Sean McCall on “Copycat.” Otherwise, the disc is all wispy vocals with ambient passages inducing dreamy, opiate sensations.
The atmospherics display an electro-pop circulation on tracks like “Judas Iscariot” and “Can I Do Wrong.” The escalades of soft lulling vocals, meandering chimes, and dreamy embers on numbers like “The Honey in Your Tea” and “Lifeblood” bolster a calming mood as the rubbery notes stretch and constrict with a clock-like metronome. “Lifeblood” is also infused with periodic whips striking through the atmosphere like a match being lit. The dynamics of “Lifeblood” and “Copycat” move with a ghostly glide, while the downbeat rhythms of “Lock & Key” are embellished with light swells and a smooth coating over the notes making the soundscapes beautifully polished.
The lyrical themes touch on words of love and words of revenge. In the song “The Honey in Your Tea,” the verses show vows of love, “I want to see you dance, I want to see you with me / This I will say / And I will hold your hands as we climb our family trees / If the words are in my hands / And if you fall I will bandage your scraped knees / This I will say / I will forever be the honey in your tea.” In the song “Judas Iscariot,” the words reveal a need for retribution, “27 years I’ve see you grin from ear to ear / I’ll slit you at both sides, uncover your lies / I want to watch you die / Watch you suffocate / I’ll recompose myself / I know that you’re weak from valve to valve / Open wide, I know what you hide / I want to watch you die, watch me levitate.”
Alcoholiday burn their candles on both ends, in the name of love and for their thoughts of revenge. Their music has the airy, floating sensations of shoegaze music associated with Lush and Spaceman 3 while marinated in the wispy vocal dews of McCall. The songs don’t break ground in the genre but it keeps its flame burning bright for forthcoming generations to identify with these dreamy sonic escapes and to be able to translate this music to their feelings.
Website (http://www.alcoholidaydanceparty.com) | MySpace (http://www.myspace.com/alcoholiday) | Buy (http://alcoholiday.bigcartel.com/product/cheers-love-ep)
Record Label: Hella Tight Records
Release Date: December 9, 2007
The floating notes and airy synth textures that have come to describe shoegaze artists like Spaceman 3 and Lush is what you will find on Alcoholiday’s latest release Cheers Love from Hella Tight Records. The 6-track EP has series of electro-pop designs which vary in forms from being virtually static to landscaping dainty swells. The entire album has a calming feel like new age music making echoed grottos of pure effect-laden channels that move motionless while winged by soft lulling vocals. If you are looking for punk-based elements, it is rare, but you will find them in the grating, screams of lead vocalist/guitarist Braden McCall on the track “Judas Iscariot” and the quicken tempo of multi-instrumentalists Bryan Yazzie and Sean McCall on “Copycat.” Otherwise, the disc is all wispy vocals with ambient passages inducing dreamy, opiate sensations.
The atmospherics display an electro-pop circulation on tracks like “Judas Iscariot” and “Can I Do Wrong.” The escalades of soft lulling vocals, meandering chimes, and dreamy embers on numbers like “The Honey in Your Tea” and “Lifeblood” bolster a calming mood as the rubbery notes stretch and constrict with a clock-like metronome. “Lifeblood” is also infused with periodic whips striking through the atmosphere like a match being lit. The dynamics of “Lifeblood” and “Copycat” move with a ghostly glide, while the downbeat rhythms of “Lock & Key” are embellished with light swells and a smooth coating over the notes making the soundscapes beautifully polished.
The lyrical themes touch on words of love and words of revenge. In the song “The Honey in Your Tea,” the verses show vows of love, “I want to see you dance, I want to see you with me / This I will say / And I will hold your hands as we climb our family trees / If the words are in my hands / And if you fall I will bandage your scraped knees / This I will say / I will forever be the honey in your tea.” In the song “Judas Iscariot,” the words reveal a need for retribution, “27 years I’ve see you grin from ear to ear / I’ll slit you at both sides, uncover your lies / I want to watch you die / Watch you suffocate / I’ll recompose myself / I know that you’re weak from valve to valve / Open wide, I know what you hide / I want to watch you die, watch me levitate.”
Alcoholiday burn their candles on both ends, in the name of love and for their thoughts of revenge. Their music has the airy, floating sensations of shoegaze music associated with Lush and Spaceman 3 while marinated in the wispy vocal dews of McCall. The songs don’t break ground in the genre but it keeps its flame burning bright for forthcoming generations to identify with these dreamy sonic escapes and to be able to translate this music to their feelings.
Website (http://www.alcoholidaydanceparty.com) | MySpace (http://www.myspace.com/alcoholiday) | Buy (http://alcoholiday.bigcartel.com/product/cheers-love-ep)