(THIS POST ORIGINALLY APPEARS ON THE TWIN CITIES BLOG NEWEST INDUSTRY)
Hardly getting through to you...
Hello again, music fans! Welcome to Sounds Of Sota #3!
For those who are unfamiliar with Sounds Of Sota, it's a running column in which we ask one of our contributors to review new albums & EP's from Minnesota artists. In sticking with our desire to rank and rate everything the albums are given a score of 1-10 at the end of the column.
This time around we asked TCDroogsma to give us his thoughts on "You Are So Loud That I Want To Die," the debut EP from Human Kindness.
TCDroogsma, thoughts?
It was just over a month ago that Human Kindness came roaring out of the U Of M camps and onto the Twin Cities music map with their album You Are So Loud That I Want To Die. It's an album filled with energy, yelled out hooks, and the sort of calamitous guitar rock that makes you wonder if they didn't steal their album name from a note left under their door.
The album eases to life on the swirling guitars of lead single "Krishnaagain." It's a fine song, I suppose, filled with a chorus that punches and energy to burn. Given its accessibility, makes sense as a lead single. What it doesn't do, however, is give an accurate picture of just what Human Kindness is (or seemingly aims to be). It treads the same familiar post-hardcore/math rock terrain that hundreds of bands have already worn thin. More than a stand alone single, "Krishnaagain" marks a departure point, an acknowledgement of the influences & ideas that formed the base of the band's sound.
You Are So Loud I Want To Die genuinely takes off with the second & third songs on the album, companion tracks "Breathing Deep (for Walking)" and "Breathing Deep (for Breathing)." Combined, the two tracks make for nearly seven & a half minutes of fuzzy, wirey, mostly-instrumental grooves. It's obviously a ballsy move to devote that much time so early into an EP to instrumentals, but it's a move that pays of in spades.
Where "Krishnaagain" showed where the band is coming from, the two "Breathing Deep" tracks illustrate where it hopes to go. Sure, there are still cues taken from D.C. hardcore (note the shuffling drums & funky bass work), there are also hints of something grander. They aim for lofty heights with these instrumentals, building up, breaking down, and rebuilding as though taking cues from both Fugazi & The E Street Band.
"When I see you call, it's like church bells ringing, and I can't help thinking of the highs from which I could fall..."
That's how we're greeted on album centerpiece "Prescription Drugs." Ask yourself, does that sound more like Guy Picciotto or Bruce Springsteen? It's tough to say, and that's what makes it so great. "Prescription Drugs" is the moment on the album when this collision of hardcore aesthetics & arena ideas mesh perfectly. While the lyrics may be lovelorn, the dueling guitar work express the buzzing head & exploding heart of a man who ends a verse asking plaintively, "I'm falling for you, do you want to see my bedroom?" It's the rare song that keeps its upward trajectory pushing through the duration of its three and a half minutes, closing the first half of the album with a bang.
After a 1:10 breather known as "Katherine Drone" (which, despite the fact that I have no idea who Katherine is, is still a perfect title for the interlude), the album's second half kicks off with the almost-ballad "Donnellan, Sam's Tape." Lyrically, it's the disappointed ex-lover to the anxious young man of "Prescription Drugs."
"I don't believe that dreams hold any higher meaning..."
These are the first words we hear, and the rest of the song proceeds to follow through on that thought. The furious, excitable energy of "Prescription Drugs" is nowhere to be found as "Donnellan, Sam's Tape" drifts along with the pace of a man wondering what went wrong. Taken as a whole, the three song run of "Prescription," "Katherine", & Donnellan" tell the story of a whirlwind relationship envisioned, consummated, abandoned, and dissected.
After the one-minute-plus dual vocal freakout that is "Limited Jest," Human Kindness takes one last big swing with album closer "Giant People."
As a group that seems to have been raised on The Hold Steady & Titus Andronicus, the band knows the importance of ending an album on something epic. I mean, the song opens with our protagonist talking to God! It's hard to get more epic than that, though the band tries admirably more than five minutes. From the 2:35 mark on they focus their collective power on building up a web of guitars and mini-climaxes. At 4:00 mark they let the whole thing collapse, only to come roaring back with the most straight ahead, Nils Lofgren-esque guitar solo of the entire album.
There's a lot of potential on this album that's realized only intermittently. Whether that's a product of time, equipment, desire, etc... I don't know, but the songs on this album show a band who hasn't yet caught up to their own ambitions. Will they get there? Let me put break it down like this:
There's a scene in the first episode of The Sopranos that any fan of the show will instantly recognize. In that first episode Tony has a family of ducks living in his backyard pool. Tony's become mildly obsessed with the ducks, feeding them everyday, taking care of them, etc... At one point in the episode the ducklings attempt to fly and Tony gets very excited, yelling for his family to come watch the birds struggle to lift out of the pool. Later in the episode, when the birds actually manage to fly away from the pool, the moment is bittersweet for Tony.
I bring this up because, admittedly, I don't know much about the guys in Human Kindness or their story as a band. They seem to be a band that takes pride in the fact that they've gone from idea to album in a relatively short amount of time (they formed in 2012). As such, I have no idea if You Are So Loud That I Want To Die is the first step of a band finding their sound or if it's just four college guys having a good time, leaving their album destined to end up in the "Lost Classics" section of Twin Cities music. My point is that, whether or not Human Kindness ever make good on their desire to fly, You Are So Loud That I Want To Die is their "ducks struggling to fly for the first time." It's exhilarating to watch, but be sure to enjoy it, because once they learn to fly, they'll belong to everybody.
Final Score: 8/10
There you have it, folks! High marks for "You Are So Loud That I Want To Die," the debut EP from Human Kindness. The album remains available as a "Name Your Price" download on their Bandcamp page.
For more TCDroogsma be sure to give him a follow on Twitter (@TCDroogsma). He can also be found right here on Newest Industry hosting our free weekly podcast Flatbasset Radio.
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