Klatzke
12/05/08, 05:19 PM
Evans Blue - The Pursuit Begins When This Portrayal of Life Ends
Record Label: Hollywood Records
Release Date: July 24, 2007
Evans Blue floored me with their debut release The Melody and the Energetic Nature of Volume. Despite their confusingly long album title, they'd managed to impress me (though I must admit, I was an impressionable young lad). After only a year of "rocking-out" to their debut, Evans Blue announced their sophomore attempt: The Pursuit Begins When This Portrayal Of Life Ends. I'm not going to kid with you, I wasn't aware of the album title when I went to buy it. Instead it was referred to by me and my friends as "the new Evans Blue album." Putting the (yet again) confusingly long album title aside, I approached The Pursuit with a vigor yet unmatched, fueled by my obsession over their debut. However, I knew the danger. Would they fail to deliver and leave me, this poor impressionable lad, with a bad taste in my mouth and a sophomore slump? The short answer is no. The long answer -- maybe.
While Evans Blues sophomore album doesn't exactly hold up to the standard set by their debut, it's still an extremely solid album. In fact, there are some songs from The Pursuit that completely blow those of The Melody out of the water. However, unlike their debut, on The Pursuit, the consistency of the album is a bit weak. As with the debut, this album opens up with a powerful three-track opener. The first of these, "In A Red Dress and Alone," opens the album with the lines: "Let's start it over/ from the beginning/ Let's play for keeps, so I know you can never get the best of me." As well, they throw in one of their almost trademarked powerhouse choruses and a whispered verse to make this track explode. "Shine Your Cadillac" is a little weak lyrically, but still holds it's own. "Q (The Best One Of Our Lives)" is a powerful track with a soaring chorus and one of the best displays of Kevin Matisyn's vocals to date. "Kiss the Flag" is a fairly weak track, unfortunately. "My Damsel: A Confession to an Adversary" picks up the pieces a bit, but isn't one of the more memorable tracks. "Pin-Up" has a much slower pace but with the addition of a cello and piano stands out a bit from the rest of the album. This track delivers some brutal honesty with the lines: "You're not the first girl/ to cut her fears/ in her arms/ Then let them trickle down, past memories/ to pools in your hands/ You can hang yourself/ with your heart-strings/ 'cause I know you won't use them to hold yourself up anymore."
The Tori Amos cover "Caught a Lite Sneeze" is the next track, and it's one of the more impressive ones. It starts off a bit awkwardly, but picks itself up with a bit of a whispered verse that progresses into another powerful chorus. The end of the track has a great bridge that showcases some serious vocal ability. "Fear" is an alright track, but it quickly loses steam and becomes lost in the rest of the album. "Dear Lucid, Our Time Is Right Now" is possibly the biggest standout track from the album. Opening with the passionately delivered lines of: "My word for dark rhymes, with your word for light and/ it's not quite as pretty as your pictures had painted," it follows the standard verse and chorus give and take of many alternative songs, but once you hit the second verse you're faced with some passion-charged vocals that forge through and make this song stand out. "Painted" is a 9-minute opus of a track. The beginning of it starts out like any of their other songs, but then progresses into solo-riddled instrumentals that continue on for a couple of minutes and eventually lead into whispered and spoken vocals that further progress into the closest thing you're going to find to a breakdown in either of their albums, consisting of screaming layered atop a chant and Matisyn's spoken vocals. Overall, while this track does drag a bit, it's a solid listen. "Painted" follows the Evans Blue formula and it works. They continue to push forth more lyrics of heartache and loss such as: "I saw you pray for change and then you walked all over me/ you wanted what you could not have and now you are alone/.../ all the choices that you chose/ leave you nothing left to hold/ when you're nothing it's a good time to remind you of one thing/ the pursuit begins when this portrayal of life ends."
And on the title lines from the album, it ends.
While this release may not harbor the energetic nature (see what I did there?) that the debut does, The Pursuit Begins When This Portrayal Of Life Ends is still a solid album. It doesn't have the consistency that The Melody and Energetic Nature of Volume did, but it has a few extremely powerful tracks. They've also brought a level of diversity to the table that wasn't present in their debut, but even with it it's unable to match the sheer enjoyability of that album. The Pursuit isn't really a sophomore slump album. Instead, it's just an album that fails to reach the great standard set forth by the debut. While we can commend them for releasing a second good album, it would be a treat to see Evans Blue release another album as powerful as The Melody, and that's hopefully something they'll be able to accomplish.
Taproot; Godsmack on "super-talent-juice"; a less predictable Breaking Benjamin
myspace.com/evansblue (http://www.myspace.com/evansblue)
Record Label: Hollywood Records
Release Date: July 24, 2007
Evans Blue floored me with their debut release The Melody and the Energetic Nature of Volume. Despite their confusingly long album title, they'd managed to impress me (though I must admit, I was an impressionable young lad). After only a year of "rocking-out" to their debut, Evans Blue announced their sophomore attempt: The Pursuit Begins When This Portrayal Of Life Ends. I'm not going to kid with you, I wasn't aware of the album title when I went to buy it. Instead it was referred to by me and my friends as "the new Evans Blue album." Putting the (yet again) confusingly long album title aside, I approached The Pursuit with a vigor yet unmatched, fueled by my obsession over their debut. However, I knew the danger. Would they fail to deliver and leave me, this poor impressionable lad, with a bad taste in my mouth and a sophomore slump? The short answer is no. The long answer -- maybe.
While Evans Blues sophomore album doesn't exactly hold up to the standard set by their debut, it's still an extremely solid album. In fact, there are some songs from The Pursuit that completely blow those of The Melody out of the water. However, unlike their debut, on The Pursuit, the consistency of the album is a bit weak. As with the debut, this album opens up with a powerful three-track opener. The first of these, "In A Red Dress and Alone," opens the album with the lines: "Let's start it over/ from the beginning/ Let's play for keeps, so I know you can never get the best of me." As well, they throw in one of their almost trademarked powerhouse choruses and a whispered verse to make this track explode. "Shine Your Cadillac" is a little weak lyrically, but still holds it's own. "Q (The Best One Of Our Lives)" is a powerful track with a soaring chorus and one of the best displays of Kevin Matisyn's vocals to date. "Kiss the Flag" is a fairly weak track, unfortunately. "My Damsel: A Confession to an Adversary" picks up the pieces a bit, but isn't one of the more memorable tracks. "Pin-Up" has a much slower pace but with the addition of a cello and piano stands out a bit from the rest of the album. This track delivers some brutal honesty with the lines: "You're not the first girl/ to cut her fears/ in her arms/ Then let them trickle down, past memories/ to pools in your hands/ You can hang yourself/ with your heart-strings/ 'cause I know you won't use them to hold yourself up anymore."
The Tori Amos cover "Caught a Lite Sneeze" is the next track, and it's one of the more impressive ones. It starts off a bit awkwardly, but picks itself up with a bit of a whispered verse that progresses into another powerful chorus. The end of the track has a great bridge that showcases some serious vocal ability. "Fear" is an alright track, but it quickly loses steam and becomes lost in the rest of the album. "Dear Lucid, Our Time Is Right Now" is possibly the biggest standout track from the album. Opening with the passionately delivered lines of: "My word for dark rhymes, with your word for light and/ it's not quite as pretty as your pictures had painted," it follows the standard verse and chorus give and take of many alternative songs, but once you hit the second verse you're faced with some passion-charged vocals that forge through and make this song stand out. "Painted" is a 9-minute opus of a track. The beginning of it starts out like any of their other songs, but then progresses into solo-riddled instrumentals that continue on for a couple of minutes and eventually lead into whispered and spoken vocals that further progress into the closest thing you're going to find to a breakdown in either of their albums, consisting of screaming layered atop a chant and Matisyn's spoken vocals. Overall, while this track does drag a bit, it's a solid listen. "Painted" follows the Evans Blue formula and it works. They continue to push forth more lyrics of heartache and loss such as: "I saw you pray for change and then you walked all over me/ you wanted what you could not have and now you are alone/.../ all the choices that you chose/ leave you nothing left to hold/ when you're nothing it's a good time to remind you of one thing/ the pursuit begins when this portrayal of life ends."
And on the title lines from the album, it ends.
While this release may not harbor the energetic nature (see what I did there?) that the debut does, The Pursuit Begins When This Portrayal Of Life Ends is still a solid album. It doesn't have the consistency that The Melody and Energetic Nature of Volume did, but it has a few extremely powerful tracks. They've also brought a level of diversity to the table that wasn't present in their debut, but even with it it's unable to match the sheer enjoyability of that album. The Pursuit isn't really a sophomore slump album. Instead, it's just an album that fails to reach the great standard set forth by the debut. While we can commend them for releasing a second good album, it would be a treat to see Evans Blue release another album as powerful as The Melody, and that's hopefully something they'll be able to accomplish.
Taproot; Godsmack on "super-talent-juice"; a less predictable Breaking Benjamin
myspace.com/evansblue (http://www.myspace.com/evansblue)