Nice, Very Nice
With a name like Aerocar Model Four I was expecting some type of emo rubbish but I was pleasantly surprised that the band's second effort 'The Sweetest Lie' is a highly enjoyable heavy rock experience. Hardly the most prolific artists around, this Canadian four-piece released their first full-length studio album in late 2003. Five years later their second release finally emerges and it does make you wonder how creative artists, regardless of line up changes and other turmoil, can take five years to write fifty minutes of music. That's ten minutes of music a year. What the hell have these guys been doing all this time? This goes for all bands that take almost aeons to actually write anything not just Aerocar Model Four.
So, has the wait been worth it? Having never heard of the band until a couple of weeks ago I have to say I have no idea. But taken on face value this disc is instantly likable due to its infectious melodies and metal undertones. 'The Sweetest Lie' isn't metal but it does like to do border raids into the nu-metal shenanigans of the late nineties. Thankfully this album doesn't sound dated because of this point, instead it runs that line of accessible heavy rock without pandering to commercialism. It has a sense of grit where it's needed and avoids the obvious 'single' and the gooey ballad. A heavier Filter or Sinch springs to mind mixed with a little early Tool, along with the nu-metal big chords of course.
The biggest asset this band has is the vocals of David Ryan De Vries. To his credit he doesn't follow the tiresome trend of adding some screamo vocals to try and add some 'heaviness' to the proceedings. Instead, he brings extra melody to the songs by keeping his style clean, mid range and powerful adding a little grit here and there. 'Dive' is a good example of his vocal muscle using harmonies for extra dimension as well as all of the above. It's a good job he's in fine form because most of the riffing is chord based along with a little chugging with the lead guitar being almost a taboo subject (almost taboo because the odd solo does creep in here and there). As you can probably work out we're dealing with big sounding rock tunes that you can sing-a-long too within one or two listens, which is no bad thing.
There truly are some great pieces of work on 'The Sweetest Lie'. Opener 'That's What She said' and 'Alienate' are catchy as hell. They're familiar sounding but you're not sure where from. You know when you get that feeling you've heard the songs before but you can't work out where from and you never get to the bottom of it. That's the possible reaction when listening to these tunes. The album peaks at 'V' along with 'Breaking Point' the latter being the disc's heaviest most guitar driven track. Although the album peaks in the middle the standard of song-writing doesn't really dip and remains constant until the solid 'Wide Awake' at the end. In essence 'The Sweetest Lie' doesn't really contain any filler, ok maybe 'Use Me' needs a re-write because the line 'If I gave you my nose could you smell your shit' is utter drivel in any language.
Any fan of American radio rock could find new saviours in Aerocar Model Four because the band, although Canadian, would fit quite nicely into that niche. They're quite ear friendly but contain enough distortion to piss your parents off. For the rest of us who think 'Radio' is a dirty word will find a highly enjoyable modern rock album that could nicely split up the plethora of metal we subject ourselves to. Nice.