There are a lot of bands around at the moment that could be roughly (and probably lazily) put into the post-punk genre and left to vegetate. An Emergency seem to challenge their contemporaries to a competition of vocal minimalism; frenzied guitars are left to create a hubbub of noise which sometimes borders on grating but usually stays the remains on the correct side of pretentious. That’s not to say this release isn’t guilty of a little self-indulgence, but I think that’s perfectly representative of the target audience here. To illustrate my point I’ll direct you to the track called ‘Paper Tiger’ and specifically the lyrics “Free credit no catches on 71 / all we see are the things that want”. The highlighting of people living beyond their means is a perfect setting for such an atmospheric record and definitely the high-point of this release for me. In fact, I’d say this record definitely sounds better in the first couple of tracks and the last two. ‘Kevin Bacon’ and ‘Irony Nein Danke’ are just very, very good.
There are times in the album though, where I feel almost lost. You all know the feeling when you’re seeing a band live: you’ve enjoyed a little instrumental break and you’re ready for a thumping bass drum to drive back into a melodic hook but it doesn’t appear, or it appears a little later than it really should. That sort of build-up should be a treat reserved for live shows as I think it works so much better there. There’s a fine line between pleasantly surprising people and becoming too absorbed in a collective build-up as to keep people hanging on a little too long for that expected return to an anthemic shout. That said, it’s not an overbearing issue and it certainly didn’t prevent me from enjoying the CD as a whole, but it does sort of dis-joint the whole affair. I guess it depends how you take to such breakdowns in the music; personally I think it’s a little over-used.
Much kudos must go to Dan Reeves for the presentation of the CD as the artwork is pretty appealing, possibly appealing enough to help the band garner a few fans which they wouldn’t normally. But in terms of overall appeal, this is certainly not going to win everyone over. What’s here is definitely good stuff, and bound to impress fans of art rock but that’s the type of audience we’re talking about here. However, with the recent rapid rise of that genre, there’s room for An Emergency to grow here and this release could be the perfect platform for that; I’d certainly like to see how this all comes across live as this record shows the potential is definitely there.
Spud