The Emo Diaries Chapter 9, Various Artists
Now I'll give Deep Elm a lot of credit by stating that some of their recent releases, and especially those by Benton Falls and Brandtson, have been great. This, the ninth chapter of the Emo Diaries series, is horribly shocking stuff. About as pompous and as difficult a record to listen to that I've maybe ever had, you can count the number of great songs on one hand. It wasn't what I was expecting at all, songs with little in the way of melody and even less emotion, which I believed was surely the point in the first place.
We'll get the good tracks out of the way first - Michael bring forth the sincere and tender 'Finish Line' which is possibly the best track here. The Paper Champions' 'Ask Emma' is a decenty little ditty without breaking the rulebook and Settlefish are as solid as their recent record suggested with 'When The Light Becomes Green'.
On the other hand tracks by Surrounded and iamuse are trite emo-by-numbers. The only emotions these songs will trigger is a angry flick of the skip button. But things get worse with the Japanese 'Karenaihana' by The Local Art, which doesn't cross the culture barrier all that well. Sure the music is good, but the lyrics don't do it for me. La Pieta meander and bore for nearly five minutes while Milton Mapes do the same for over seven minutes with their drum rumblings and terrible warblings. You get the picture.
If you want an emo sampler to cry yourself to sleep to then avoid this. I'm almost certain, reading other reviews, that there are plenty of better chapters in the Emo Diaries series that would be better starting points. This though, will do only one thing - cure insomnia.
www.deepelm.com
Paul
