Again For The Win - We've Been Here Forever
Whimsical rockers Again for the Win have returned with their second full-length release, offering us quite a strange blend of indie and space-rock, and even a slight echo of emo. The record consists mostly of euphoric, trancey and electric tracks. Merkabah's distorted and disjointed sound is a pleasant listen at best; the repetition of "They were all wearing red when they came down to earth" is quite exhaustive, in all honesty. The Legend Of has a similar sound; its dainty, twisting synths definitely spark some personality into the equation, but again, I find my mind straying to sandwiches half way through the song.
Breaking/Entering, however, has a more solid, pounding feel to it. It's more rhythmic, less random, but still quite boring. The experimentation with all the synths sounds more like an old fashioned computer game/pinball machine than anything else. Jams like Your Heaviest Light and Guns are basically just a string of strange, distorted, and borderline eerie sound effects, mingled with Carter Francis' spoken vocals rather than sung ones, but they erupt into something much more interesting. Well, a little bit more interesting. They're still worth a listen, though.
Thankfully, there are a couple of belters on We've Been Here Forever, particularly Having Heard Sirens with its soaring and juicy riffs, which make it a much better listen than the majority of these songs. Well, it diverted my attention away from sandwiches anyway. A definite high point is Aspirations, a mellow and floaty acoustic track about lost hopes and dreams. The vocals on this track are striking in comparison to the rest of them, and create a very a gripping effect.
On the whole, the album sounds like we're being attacked by aliens with all the spacey-sounding stuff, and it made me feel like I was on drugs. Whether that's a good effect or not, I'm not quite sure yet. But if that's your cup of tea, then you'll love it.