I’ll level with you all straight away, this album is my first and only experience of the Juliana Theory, and after people had told me what to expect, it couldn’t be any different from what I was expecting. Emo this, Emo that, 2002 was the year of ‘Emotion’ and while TJT left Tooth & Nail to join major players Epic, many people were wondering how their ’emo’ sound would change. What the Juliana Theory have developed into can be no less described than a thinking mans rock band. No sparkling sub-genre’s to speak of, they make thought provoking rock and they make it well.
The album blends between the heavier and the reflective numbers seamlessly and at fourteen songs you certainly get value for money. A churning riff introduces the album before the distinctive and expressive vocals of frontman Brett Detar push you full throttle into ‘Bring it Low’. ‘Do you believe me?’ is inexcusably catchy with flowing smooth verses before a ‘whoa-whoa’ chorus which draws the listener into a sing-a-long. ‘Shell of a Man’ slows the pace down a little with a ballad featuring a rather drawn out vocal performance from Detar with pianos laced over the reflective chorus. ‘Jewel to Sparkle’ and ‘White Days’ are two more tracks to follow a similar pattern which works surprisingly well, and despite the feeling at times the frontman is not really stamping his authority on the song as much as some of the rockier efforts, ‘White Days’ dispels that fact and is a stand out effort.
‘Repeating Repeating turns the noise factor back up 110% and is almost grunge like in nature with the slurring vocals and wirring drum patterns setting the song alite. Detar finds both angst and funkiness in his voice for the superb ‘Congratulations’ with ‘The Hardest Things’ showing a great contrast between the bands rockier edge and more mellow sides, with superb song writing throughout. ‘DTM’ is a body mover and if you find your head to be experiencing random nods through the four minutes don’t be too surprised, and get ready to rock out at the end as well. Unfortunately it isn’t all peaches and cream with ‘Trance’ proving a slight dissapointment and ‘In Conversation’ not really heading in the right direction either being slightly laboured.
‘Into the Dark’gives the album a much needed lift with a slow, yet feel good track, which manages to blend seemless harmonies together which lead well into the acoustic track ‘As It Stands’, which doesn’t really engage like others have done. ‘Everything’ wraps the album in a rather eclectic manner which is somewhat surprising considering the previous thirteen tracks.
It is incredibly hard to categorize ‘The Juliana Theory‘ with the band showing many wide ranging influences and genre crossovers. There really is something for everybody here with such the likes of ‘Bring it Low’ and ‘Repeating Repeating rocking you out hard, ‘Congratulations’ making you wanna bust-a-move and ‘White Days’ proving to be one of the most beautiful songs you could wish to hear. Make no bones about it, this is an album that comes thoroughly recommended to anyone in any scene. It is that good.
Jay