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| Aspen It Is - Release Me! From the Weights of Gravity | How lucky are we to find a band that happens to have all the essential ingredients for a respectable pop-punk band and lay claims for a witty name to boot? Aspen It Is… are touching on all bases to get the interest the scene seems to be craving as of late. More than just wetting the appetite of teen boppers, though, Release Me! From the Weights of Gravity demonstrates how tasteful rock ethics need not apply in making a record that pushes standards a wee bit forward, both observing the energy needed to keep up with the genre’s predecessors while creating a stunningly mature, proto-emo masterpiece.
Make no mistake, while I’d be quick to compare AIT to the likes of The Mile After, The Early November, and The Academy Is…, the former effortlessly skips the truffle shuffle other such pop-punk bands get stuck into doing on their debut. Their scrupulous song progression may be an enigmatic aspect to Release Me! but the boundless energy and enthusiasm more than makes up for the fact that the average listener will not take into account how involved this album really is. Putting their money on shifting between fervent pop-punk (“She’s Dead. We’re All Dead”, “In the Beginning There Were Explosions”) and jovial acoustic sing-alongs (“Our Weekend in Florida”, “Every Magician Knows Where the Trap Door Lies”), Aspen twists both aspects into a coheres melody induced, rock release.
“Welcome to Warp Zone” opens the album with vocals you’ll instantly come to terms with, those of Jimmie James and Jessy Lee. Bending harmonies into innocent croons, Ace Ender may as well been making a cameo. “Pipe Dreams” uses the tempo established with the latter track, introducing the ‘pop’ and ‘rock/punk’ facets to the band’s sound. Lyrics remain far from vague, staying coherent throughout and a dynamic part of Release Me! For instance, track four, “Blue Arm of the Black Tuxedo”, both exemplifies what I meant regarding “scrupulous song progression” and the lyrical aspect in: “If you help yourself to our deepest desires/You’ll never know if we were more the liars”. The musicianship I’ve failed to mention is the main focus of “Back to the Future pt. IV”, as it boasts oscillating guitars, spiraling from ‘here’ to ‘there’, and adept drum rhythms courtesy of Oscar Olsen.
If you were ever in doubt whether or not you’d ever be addicted to an acoustic-based song ever again, flail those doubts alive. “Our Weekend in Florida” incorporates bouncy 6-string plucks, sing-along gang chants, and humorous background samples of what seems to be some of the band member’s friends goofing off while trying to stay in tune with the song.
“We walk along digging my bare hands in the sand/Pulling up shells and listening/We watched our sun finally set/Into my hands and you covered it.”
Ending with arguably the best song on the record, “Every Magician Knows Where the Trap Door Lies” is a low-fi “bedroom recording” of one of the best acoustic anthems I’ve heard all year.
It closes the album with various recordings and samples, disorienting your mind on whether or not you just listened to your favorite album of the year. Collectively, I believe, most will find that they indeed did. |
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Displaying posts 1 - 5 of 5. |
10:45 PM on 10/25/06 | calling out to the astronaut sounds sweet. ill look into it. | | |
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01:26 PM on 10/29/06 | i absolutly love this record. ten out of ten, seriously. as long as youre into pop rock, otherwise you wont find it as fun. | | |
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06:41 PM on 10/29/06 | sounds a little like northstar | | |
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09:27 AM on 11/03/06 | they're a long time favorite of mine back from the days of "Everyone Down! Someone Has an AK" and "Twelve 46 AM"
I've been waiting for their first Full Length for so long and I'm really happy with how it came out! Definitely a lot of fun. | | |
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