It’s been 3 years since O’Brother released their excellent album, ‘Dissolution’. It was a sprawling, expansive journey, which won them critical acclaim. Naturally, there have been high expectations for its follow-up. That brings us to their new album, ‘Endless Light’. Self-described by the band as “Apocalyptic space-pop”, the opening track, ‘Slow Sin’, which resembles the Terminator theme tune with its bombastic drum beat, sets the tone for that description perfectly.
Huge, bottom-end guitars provide the backbone for most of ‘Endless Light’, with ‘Your Move’, and ‘Burn’ building to near breaking point. They are flecked with moments of minimalist beauty, before mammoth riffs crash into one another. One of the standout tracks, the grandiose ‘Bloodlines’, is flecked with post-metal ambience, but pushed through a Radiohead-esque filter.
Each track has been meticulously planned out, and is some of O’Brother’s most accomplished work to date. They intertwine off-kilter time signatures with shimmering melody, driven largely by Tanner Merritt’s diverse vocal range. He reaches soaring high’s on ‘Time Is a Length Of Rope’, and draws out low-key notes over the bass-heavy ‘(I Am) Become Death’, acting as another instrument to maintain the ambient vibe of the album.
The problem with ‘Endless Light’ is that it never really seems to take off when you want it too. The tracks seem to blend in to each other when you listen to the whole album, meaning that some moments of glory get lost when they should really shine. Where a band like Thrice, whose latter material bears a resemblance to what O’Brother do, would shock you with an unexpected moment of cathartic chaos, ‘Endless Light’ becomes a little predictable as it goes on.
It would be unfair to call the album bad, or indeed apply too much of a negative connotation to it. Particularly when a track like ‘Complicated End Times’ gets under your skin. ‘Endless Light’ is still a worthwhile investment of anybody’s time for its high points. It just feels that after hitting their apex on ‘Dissolution’ in 2013, they failed to match that album’s velocity and power.
GLEN BUSHELL