Sometimes the idea of a “super-group” is better than the final product. Sadly, that rings true for Trade Wind, whose debut album, ‘You Make Everything Disappear’ is a lacklustre effort that’s deprived of any real passion despite the subject matter. Featuring Jesse Barnett (Stick To Your Guns) and Tom Williams (Stray From The Path), the album never quite reaches the mark which is such a shame, since the previous EP ‘Suffer Just To Believe’ was an exciting and well crafted release.
Setting the tone for the record, ‘I Hope I Don’t Wake Up’ and ‘Tatiana (I Miss You)’ both start off rather promising showing some obvious influence from Deftones but disappointingly that’s where the positives end. Lyrically, ‘I Hope…’ is a bit weak and teen angst ridden, making the emotions on display a little hard to believe. ‘Tatiana’ is similar although, poppier, it soon falls flat and becomes rather tedious.
‘Lowest Form’ and ‘Grey Light’ explore the use of digital and electronic sounds that break up the album a little. The former is a melancholy offering until the ending that acts as a “last hurrah” in attempting to make the song more interesting but unfortunately by that point it’s too little too late. The latter track ‘Grey Light’ however explores some interesting ideas and demonstrates that Jesse Barnett actually has a beautifully smooth and soulful voice when he’s not fronting a hardcore band. Both ‘Grey Light’ and ‘Radio Songs’ are slightly poppy and continue with the soulful vocal stylings. ‘Radio Songs’ does work its way through some nice build ups, one in particular into a dazzling crescendo that’s far too short lived.
‘Rare’ like its name, actually brings the album to life all of a sudden with the addition of some distorted guitars and change ups in the vocal styles that actually appear to transmit some real emotions and meaning. The most disappointing thing about this track is that again it seems so short lived and ends before it’s really got going. It’s not often that a band exploring post-hardcore or ambient soundscapes will end a song sooner rather than later but Trade Wind seem to have done the opposite.
‘Untitled’ is the shortest track on the album. An almost acapella track filled with sorrow, save for the minimal use of pianos, it’s a beautiful heartfelt piece containing references to some of the previous tracks and makes it clear that this album is primarily dealing with the subject of loss.
In a fairly daring move, the final song on the album is sung / spoken entirely in French. ‘Je t’aimerais toujours’ or ‘I Will Always Love You’ (no relation to Whitney Houston) once more contains some backing vocals that relate to previous tracks on the album and create a rather moving atmosphere. It’s such a shame that the overall outcome of the album is a fairly lifeless and monotonous one, there are some interesting ideas being covered but by the time ‘You Make Everything Disappear’ draws to a close it all appears to have been in vain.
JAMES DAVENPORT