The Number Twelve Looks Like You - Worse Than Alone

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RIYL

Psyopus
The Tony Danza Tapdance Extravaganza
Into the Moat

Release Date

03/10/2009

Label

Eyeball Records

Tracklist

1. Glory Kingdom
2. Given Life
3. To Catch a Tiger...
4. Marvin's Jungle
5. Garden's All Nighters
6. ...If They Holler, Don't Let Go
7. Retort, Rebuild, Remind
8. League of Endangered Oddities
9. Serpentine
10. I'll Make My Own Hours

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7 ratings

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Recent Ratings

The new and improved version of The Number Twelve Looks Like You started with 2007’s opus Mongrel, in which the band ditched random shred and technicality for a more cohesive approach. Their newest effort, Worse Than Alone, not only continues in this direction, but it manages to improve on it in some instances. Quite simply, the heavy parts are heavier, the jazzy parts are jazzier, and the melodic parts are more melodic. But does that mean it’s better?

“Glory Kingdom” is a heavy and to-the-point opener, but it doesn’t have the same power that “Imagine Nation Express” possessed.  The following track, “Given Life,” shows the more experimental side of the band, however. Next you get “To Catch A Tiger,” which is introduced with a riff that is reminiscent of Blood Brothers’s “Cecilia and the Silhouette Saloon,”  but it later develops into one of the heaviest tracks on the album with a breakdown that August Burns Red would give two thumbs up.

“Marvin’s Jungle” starts off with clean guitars and clean vocals but soon after gets heavy. “If They Holler, Don’t Let Go” starts off rather annoying but ends with one of the catchiest parts you’ve ever heard from this band. The band’s token ballad comes in the form of the pseudo-classical fused “The League of Endangered Oddities” which features only clean vocals until it breaks into an ending that could be a lost Fall of Troy track. The electronic drums and quiet guitar work on “Serpentine” make for the strangest Number Twelve track you’ve ever heard, but it leads right in to the nine-minute epic “I’ll Make My Own Hours,” which has virtually everything the band can do thrown into one song.

Worse Than Alone is a very good all around album. Although it excels in a lot of elements the band tried to achieve on Mongrel, it lacks the same immediate punch that Mongrel had. Still, Worse Than Alone is one of the strongest efforts of the year... so far, and a release that the band should be proud to have in their catalogue.

--Logan Broger

Author

logan37
Last updated: 09/29/2009 09:04PM

Comments

Cody Rogers
03/31/2009
09:24AM
Age: 19
Location
Raleigh, NC

Dude, come on, you didn't even mention "The Garden's All Nighters", which I think is undoubtedly the best song on the album.

Mike Duchnowsky
03/31/2009
01:55PM
Age: 27
Location
West Haven, CT

WOW...
Good job fellas.

The Cityscape Burns Brighter By The Hour.

lazerwolf
03/31/2009
02:08PM
Age: 27
Location
NJ

it gets my stamp of approval.

Go FLYERS Go

Jschro
03/31/2009
05:26PM
Age: 24
Location
Cleveland, OH

Yeah I've been liking this more and more with each listen.
4:19 into ...If They Holler, Don't Let Go.

Recently:
Gnarls Barkley
Minus the Bear
Gayngs
Engineers

Stinkypickle
04/03/2009
11:27AM

Just doesn't quite live up to Mongrel.