Susan Frances
08/05/08, 05:32 PM
Mr. Lightweight - Clock and Bottle
Record Label: Unsigned
Release Date: July 25, 2008
Mr. Lightweight’s earlier EP, If Anyone’s Listening, gave audiences a taste of this rock quartet’s spirited guitar lines bannered by Kristian McGrath and meaty rhythmic kicks armed with bassist Spud and drummer Pat Byrne, but it was the husky vocal keys of lead singer, Des Foley that had the task of helming the course of these rushing deluges which proved to be a huge undertaking. The band again shows their unbridled energy that harks of NOFX’s racing chords on their current full-length album, Clock and Bottle. The main difference between the two, besides Mr. Lightweight calling Carlow, Ireland home, is that Mr. Lightweight maintain a melodic bandwidth reminiscent of Stone Temple Pilots, and that’s not a shabby place to be for a band on their first full-length record.
A few tracks like “Debs Song” and “Dog Without His Bone” were on the band’s previous EP. They reinforce the band’s attention to punk rock mechanics like having currents that pound hard and then soften through “Debs Song,” and the Celtic-folk twang in the acoustic guitar rattles of “Dog Without His Bone” making room for the punk rock spikes in Foley’s vocal melody. The band’s guitar treads are voluminous while ripping and roaring in tracks like “Maybe Baby” and “Time is the Only Enemy” showing a tamed barbarism reflective of Taking Back Sunday. The wavy melodic riffs along “Twelve Majestic Lies” and “Please Leave Me Now” have emo-rock platelets, while the smashing of guitars, drums and bass lines going into each other through “Waking Life” slip into gear after an alarm clock sounds off.
Mr. Lightweight enjoy putting little sound effects in the tracks like an alarm clock ringing, or the pop of a beer can being opened, and what is cool is that these are all universal sounds. You know what they are the moment you hear them. Mr. Lightweight don’t just use the sounds made by objects, they also build effects using their instruments like the salvo of drum kicks along “The Simon J. Byrne Instrumental,” and the beautiful synth-textured escape that starts off “The Inside Out Job,” which then breaks into a barrage of thrusting guitars and pounding beats. “The Inside Out Job” is a new song for Mr. Lightweight and brings the band out of their shell a little, while the slight ska-lifts in “Sun Bed” and the melodic flow of the tune builds up and subsides along the folds and returns Mr. Lightweight to their punk rock base.
Recorded by Neal Calderwood at Manor Park Studios in Co. Antrim in Northern Ireland, Clock and Bottle is as impressive as the band’s previous EP. They have a tamed barbarism about them which makes their music extremely spirited but melodic enough that you can listen to the whole album all the way through, and then want to hear it again. There’s a fine line between being barbaric and having finesse, and Mr. Lightweight have created a niche for themselves where they can be both.
Stone Temple Pilots, NOFX, Taking Back Sunday
www.myspace.com/mrlightweight (http://www.myspace.com/mrlightweight)
Record Label: Unsigned
Release Date: July 25, 2008
Mr. Lightweight’s earlier EP, If Anyone’s Listening, gave audiences a taste of this rock quartet’s spirited guitar lines bannered by Kristian McGrath and meaty rhythmic kicks armed with bassist Spud and drummer Pat Byrne, but it was the husky vocal keys of lead singer, Des Foley that had the task of helming the course of these rushing deluges which proved to be a huge undertaking. The band again shows their unbridled energy that harks of NOFX’s racing chords on their current full-length album, Clock and Bottle. The main difference between the two, besides Mr. Lightweight calling Carlow, Ireland home, is that Mr. Lightweight maintain a melodic bandwidth reminiscent of Stone Temple Pilots, and that’s not a shabby place to be for a band on their first full-length record.
A few tracks like “Debs Song” and “Dog Without His Bone” were on the band’s previous EP. They reinforce the band’s attention to punk rock mechanics like having currents that pound hard and then soften through “Debs Song,” and the Celtic-folk twang in the acoustic guitar rattles of “Dog Without His Bone” making room for the punk rock spikes in Foley’s vocal melody. The band’s guitar treads are voluminous while ripping and roaring in tracks like “Maybe Baby” and “Time is the Only Enemy” showing a tamed barbarism reflective of Taking Back Sunday. The wavy melodic riffs along “Twelve Majestic Lies” and “Please Leave Me Now” have emo-rock platelets, while the smashing of guitars, drums and bass lines going into each other through “Waking Life” slip into gear after an alarm clock sounds off.
Mr. Lightweight enjoy putting little sound effects in the tracks like an alarm clock ringing, or the pop of a beer can being opened, and what is cool is that these are all universal sounds. You know what they are the moment you hear them. Mr. Lightweight don’t just use the sounds made by objects, they also build effects using their instruments like the salvo of drum kicks along “The Simon J. Byrne Instrumental,” and the beautiful synth-textured escape that starts off “The Inside Out Job,” which then breaks into a barrage of thrusting guitars and pounding beats. “The Inside Out Job” is a new song for Mr. Lightweight and brings the band out of their shell a little, while the slight ska-lifts in “Sun Bed” and the melodic flow of the tune builds up and subsides along the folds and returns Mr. Lightweight to their punk rock base.
Recorded by Neal Calderwood at Manor Park Studios in Co. Antrim in Northern Ireland, Clock and Bottle is as impressive as the band’s previous EP. They have a tamed barbarism about them which makes their music extremely spirited but melodic enough that you can listen to the whole album all the way through, and then want to hear it again. There’s a fine line between being barbaric and having finesse, and Mr. Lightweight have created a niche for themselves where they can be both.
Stone Temple Pilots, NOFX, Taking Back Sunday
www.myspace.com/mrlightweight (http://www.myspace.com/mrlightweight)