Old School
OK, the track list may bring on a bit of déjà vu...’This Is The Call’ (‘This is A Call’...Foo Fighters perhaps), ‘Living Like A Car Crash’ (’Understanding In A Car Crash’...Thursday, maybe) but Speakyourheart get off to a good start, sounding like old school emo with a dash of post-hardcore on occasion; they hark back a few years to those days when emo wasn’t a dirty word and Thursday were still really good. And perhaps those song titles are supposed to be familiar; with the first track being the play on words ‘Oh Brother We’re Art Now’ you can almost believe it...
Down to business, and in fact this is a really decent record; great tunes played with heart. It’s really easy to dismiss this kind of record these days because of how much water has passed under the bridge with emo, most bands have evolved away from the simple pleasures that emotional rock can bring, in fact though, on the contrary, this makes “This Is How We Communicate” a breath of fresh air. It’s an album of simple rock tunes well played with great melodies and what does actually sound like genuine emotion (for a change).
It’s easy to see their influences running throughout; Thursday, The Get Up Kids, (they also cast your mind as far back as Superchunk, Braid or Sunny Day Real Estate), but this just serves to bring a touch of longing to your experience. These are melodic, heartfelt guitar-led tunes, sometimes with a pop-punk twang and luckily not dwelling lyrically on failed relationships too heavily. Overall what you take away from the album is an upbeat feeling and the memory of some catchy tunes which is no bad thing.