Anberlin - Dark is the Way: Light is a Place
Rating
RIYL
Jimmy Eat WorldAcceptance
Mae
Release Date
09/07/2010
Label
Universal RepublicTracklist
1. "We Owe This to Ourselves"2. "Impossible"
3. "Take Me (As You Found Me)"
4. "Closer"
5. "You Belong Here"
6. "Pray Tell"
7. "Art of War"
8. "To the Wolves"
9. "Down"
10. "Depraved"
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Anberlin has made quite the career out of writing sensitive, densely layered, big rock songs. After three increasingly successful albums as a pop-punk influenced hard rock band on Tooth and Nail Records, the band hit it big with their first major release New Surrender, with the lead single “The Feel Good Drag” reaching number one on the Billboard Alternative Rock Chart. Understandably, the pressure on the band for their fifth studio album Dark is the Way: Light is a Place must be pretty high.
The band handles it like veterans. While reactions will vary between a band just perfecting what they’ve always done or playing it safe because of major label influence, the bottom line is that this album sounds like a further continuation of the musical trek Anberlin has always been on. But even though it sounds similar to what they’ve released before, they’ve thrown in enough new tricks to keep it interesting. Like their albums before it, there are rockers with huge riffs and intense vocals, mid-tempo huge chorused made-for-radio songs, and some atmospheric dark rock numbers, all coated with a lush production sheen and singer Stephen Christian’s irresistibly epic vocals.
The album kicks off with great bombast with “We Owe This To Ourselves”. Utilizing what is easily the biggest and best riff on the album, this song rocks hard and intensely with a catchy, intricate chorus. This song sounds like most everything we know and love from Anberlin until the bridge where they begin to show some new flourishes that might throw some listeners for a loop. Instead of ramping up the intensity as usual, it drops into a slow, atmospheric, almost post-rock section. Guitars bounce around dreamily and there is a haunting, echoing piano clamoring in from the background. Some fans might not enjoy this section, but moments of quiet and introspection in such a loud, furious song is a nice respite and gives the song great depth. The other massive, fierce riff-fest on the album is “To the Wolves”. While the drum machines and loops in the verse are questionable, the noodly guitars and huge chorus make this song something that screams to be experienced live.
It wouldn’t be entirely accurate to label the rest of the album as being softer, as there are still loud and intense moments, but the band certainly seems to take a more methodical approach to how things sound. The first single, “Impossible,” should be huge on the radio. Beginning with some cascading, echoing guitars, it has softer and smoother than usual vocals. It stays the same tempo and rolls into a nice big catchy chorus with a very full and warm sound backing it up, reminiscent of some of Jimmy Eat World’s best moments. “Closer” follows a similar blueprint with an avalanche of cascading guitars before taking a heavier turn and throwing in a giant melodic breakdown in the bridge. The sappy sweet, but still great, “You Belong To Me” sounds like an awesomely updated version of the song you heard in the romantic climax of every 80s teen comedy. “Pray Tell” has the band crossing into some new rhythmic territory, utilizing stomps and claps in a syncopated, almost Caribbean sounding beat. While the vocals and the beat keep things relatively breezy, the guitars, while clean, are frantic and harsh, creating a nice contrast.
Anberlin does some neat stuff on this album, but there are a few complaints that might be glaring to a few long-time fans. What might be most shocking is that they rely much less on crunchy, heavy distortion and focus much more on atmosphere and texture. There are synths, drum machines and random digital noises all over this album. While they never come out to the forefront, they are more noticeable than before. I view it as creating a richer, fuller sound, but part of me misses the loud, full-throated two guitars, a bass and drums that Anberlin does so well. The token acoustic song “Down” is nothing special, and its spot should have been filled with something more substantial. Lastly, although the band has always been adept at creating awesome epic closers, “Depraved” spends a little too much time meandering around in the build-up phase. It’s great once it reaches its catchy, desperate climax where Christian pleads, “Someone tell me I’m wrong,” but it takes way too long to get there.
For better or for worse, Dark is the Way: Light is a Place has Anberlin doing what they do best: writing great, varied, lush, sensitive, mainstream-ish pop-rock songs. If you weren’t a fan before, this album isn’t going to turn you into a die-hard. However, if you liked Anberlin before and are willing to follow the band branching out into a more mature sound, this album will probably make you fall in love all over again.
--Stephen Harris
Comments
Baton Rouge
I really felt like New Surrender was a regression after Cities, especially lyrically. Does this more mature sound feel like a progression or a sidestep?
Boobs
http://thenicsperiment.blogspot.com/
Washington, DC
I'd consider it a progression. I didn't like New Surrender that much either, and this one is generally more enjoyable if you can get past the fact that it is slightly more low-key.
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Fishers, Indiana
I'm interested to hear this, though precisely what you mentioned would irk long-time fans is worrying me.
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Green Brook, NJ
cities was a horrible record. this band only has a few good songs on each record, but i can't name 1 on that cd that i actually go back to.
Dubuque
Not a big fan of this record. Some memorable songs, but I felt their last album was better.
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Baton Rouge
Dismantle Repair? Godspeed? Whisper and a Clamor? No?
Boobs
http://thenicsperiment.blogspot.com/
Spokane, Washington
i feel like a number of album reviews are getting overlooked and under-discussed because they're being posted before the album either, a. leaks or b. is released. i would love to discuss this album, but it hasn't leaked yet, so.....
current listenings:
Of Virtue - "Heartsounds"
Capsule - "No Ghost"
Century - "Red Giant"
James Vincent McMorrow - "Early In The Morning"
Blind Pilot - "We Are The Tide"
Minnesota
Quick side note on when reviews get posted: We try to publish reviews of upcoming albums as soon as the reviews are ready for two main reasons. The first is that it "gets us on the map" if we're one of the first publications to review an album since it'll be the main google result or reference for a review of the album. The second is that it gives a band or label the chance to use our review (if it's positive) as PR material to pump up hype for their album, which in turn also helps us out. A tertiary reason for publishing early is to get our own readers pumped for an album (or to ratchet down expectations when an album turns out to be bad).
Hopefully once an album does drop or leak, people come back to discuss it...
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Dubuque
You beat me to the punch. I know where you are coming from b_myers, but like Rick said an early review gets us listed in the press releases and so on. Shit it's even gotten us in a tv promo ad for the Ignite album. Watermarking is coming more of a norm so I think a lot of albums will leak less and less.
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San Borja, Lima, Perú
Cities was one catchy as hell album which i came back for repeated listens. No other album from theirs really got that much of attention.
Baton Rouge
I agree. I liked a few songs on their other three, but only Cities kept me coming back. The others kind of pulled off the miracle of being both disjointed and monotonous. I can throw on Cities and happily get all the way through, anytime.
Boobs
http://thenicsperiment.blogspot.com/
PA
Never cared for this band but I love this CD cover and I can't explain why.
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Illinois
listened to the first few songs, and i hated it. i can't stand the singer's voice at all. that must've been the reason i never got in to this band.
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Fishers, Indiana
Cos that cover is more post-rock than your 4 washed-out squares of color shirt.
And I finally got this album. First track is fucking exceptional. I'm excited for the rest of it.
edit: Alright, seven tracks in and I'm kinda bored. It's decent stuff, but meh.
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Minnesota
Zach, I'm with you. Great first track... then a whole bunch of blah. This seems to be their mellowest album yet and because of that, I was really bored throughout most of the songs. They need to get back to actually rocking on their rock songs.
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Baton Rouge
I like tracks 1,2,4, and 6.Nine and 10 are okay. The rest...meh.. After five records, I think it is safe to say this band is always going to be a little cheeseball. They seem to always feel like they have to balance their rocking out with ballads, but I think the ballads kind of won out on this one, which is unfortunate. When they are firing on all cylinders, they sound like no one else, but they hardly ever want to do it.
Boobs
http://thenicsperiment.blogspot.com/
Kansas
this is terrible....I like 2 tracks....
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