As Tall As Lions - As Tall as Lions
Rating
RIYL
CodesevenThe Police
The Smiths
Ours
Tracklist
1. Stab City2. Summer
3. A Break A Pause
4. Love Love Love (Love Love)
5. Ghosts Of York
6. Milk and Honey
7. Be Here Now
8. Kickin' Myself
9. Mariah
10. Maybe I'm Just Tired
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It’s all too seldom that ambient, honest, and tactful pop music makes its way to the forefront, and even less frequent that it gets the attention it deserves. Codeseven, being the most prominent group to come to mind in recent history, made strides in this department only to disband from a lack of a substantial audience, and with the greatness of As Tall As Lions' predecessors being considered, it's rather remarkable that the group have been capable of their success to date. With influences reaching from The Police to The Smiths, its no wonder that the group's second full length album, the self titled As Tall As Lions, is as captivating as it is.
The album opens up with “Stab City”, a gentle track that builds up, both instrumentally and vocally, as it progresses and sets a mood and expectations for the album that the next nine tracks more than satisfy. “Song for Luna” brings the progressive touch down a notch and serves as the perfect intermediary piece, leading into “A Break A Pause”, a track as rich instrumentally as the album’s opener. With the guitar and drums more on the experimental side of pop, set to background spacey samples and a come and go piano player, the depth of this album is remarkable, not only considering the groups which the band often tour with, but their label mates as well, as most of Triple Crown’s roster is on the pop-punk side of the fence.
“Love, Love, Love (Love, Love)” is a true highlight of the album, and reinforces the band’s style of starting most of their songs out slowly and building them up into an amazing array of melody and ambiance. This track is especially awe inspiring due to its chorus being performed in the vein of a choir group set to a background of lush indie pop. “Ghost of York” grounds the band, at least momentarily, and serves as a more rock influenced track, an acceptable variation from its predecessors and leads into the mellower “Milk and Honey”. This is a slower track which is easily relatable to “Song for Luna”. “Be Here Now” offers a contrast to its predecessor with a louder introduction, and a moodier tone throughout. This track brings to mind peers of the group such as Gatsby’s American Dream, but with a bit more gentle vocal range.
“I’m Kicking Myself” is an interesting change of tone, and serves as a more than pleasant acoustic track which reinforces a theme of hopefulness met with depression that seems to reoccur throughout the album’s duration. “Where Do I Stand?” despite being a solid track just isn’t quite as catchy as prior tracks, but does have a solid range instrumentally. “Maybe I’m Just Tired” is both the album’s softest and most beautiful track, with melancholy vocals set to a background of spacey piano keys and soft drumming, which progresses into a rather wealthy track, seemingly a perfect closer for an album as solid as any that come to mind in recent history. Despite the excellence of the closer, the group offer up a hidden track as well, which is both danceable and catchy, yet doesn’t shift moods or take away from the rest of the album’s content. The track is a welcome addition to the lineup of songs and is further proof of the talent swelling within the group.
As Tall As Lions is an album that may be harder for some mainstream pop-punk fans to swallow, but is rich in content and more than worthy of a listen. Piano driven melodies set to a more experimental indie sound come together for an album that may catch listeners off guard, but will become a wealthy addition to any cultured listener's collection.
--Josh Tabbia
Comments
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Music Blog.
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Sacramento, CA
I'm not here to make things better; only to observe and pass judgement.
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Sacramento, CA
that's pretty much my first impression as well, but i must warn you not to over-listen or else it loses that spark.
I'm not here to make things better; only to observe and pass judgement.