Settle seem to have snuck under the radar with Epitaph snapping them up and releasing this album. I didn’t even know they were an Epitaph band until this CD dropped on my doormat! The bio describes the band as ‘indie and dance rock’ and it’s actually not too bad a description; for me this record sounds a bit like a scuzzier, less catchy We Are Scientists. For some people that may be a good thing, for others it may be a bad thing.
The major point for me is that while Settle try and do something a bit jazzy and rocky, they don’t quite hit the spot. Kudos for not going down the mainstream catchy route, but if I’m going to listen to dancey rock music, I want to have huge hooks that will make me sing, dance, smile and everything in between. There aren’t too many tracks here that do that. ‘On The Prowl’ is a cool little song, as is ‘I Saw An Inferno Once’, but all too often the songs kind of drift along. They’re good, but they’re not great. And with music so utterly disposable nowadays I need something to keep me interested. Settle don’t really have that, I don’t think.
‘At Home We Are Tourists’ is an interesting record and in places is pretty good. But as a complete album I don’t feel it has the consistency to make it strong enough for me to listen again and again. If you’re after something a little different from Epitaph’s usual releases, this is worthy of a spin. But I’m not sure if you’ll keep going back to it or not.