The skies were overcast, black clouds permanently blocked out the sun and all hope was lost. The identikit emotive rock clones had taken over the scene which had become nothing more than a barren wasteland of forced and strained emotion where substance had lost its battle with style many years before and lay disregarded at the bottom of the Sea of Generica’s desolate floor. Suddenly a crack of light shone through the bleak atmosphere, the cavalry was on the way; the God’s were coming together to save the universe. The tide was finally turning as the dawn of a new era was just over the horizon. OK, so that’s wildly over the top but it’s not far off how I felt when I heard SOLEA were releasing a full-length album.
For those who need an introduction; SOLEA are the latest band of Sergie Loobkoff (SAMIAM) and Garrett Klahn (TEXAS IS THE REASON) both their former bands were pioneers of the indie-rock-emo-punk crossover in the 90’s and still carry huge cult followings today. Although they’ve had releases in Japan in the last couple of years, GOLF have only fairly recently sorted a deal out for SOLEA the UK.
So the scene was certainly set for something special as I made out in the opening paragraph, and although the album has been out a fair while now, it’s hasn’t really made a huge impact in the UK at all which I’m rather disappointed about, as this is a very fine collection of songs indeed. This album does sound like a car crash between TITR and latter day ‘Astray’ era SAMIAM in which the debris and carnage is that of spectacularly well written songs; well what else would you really expect?!
Things kick off with the upbeat ‘Apotheke’ which sets the tone for the album by throwing tons of melody over sweet guitar licks in only a way which can be described as not far short of perfection. The formula is repeated on several other tracks across the 11 song release; ‘Frankie Machine’, ‘Leaving Today’ and ‘So Far Gone’ are other highlights in the same vein as the openers. ‘Where you belong’ is a bit darker but stunning with it, mainly down to the almost haunting guitars in the chorus.
Unfortunately there are a few duds on this album which stop it from scoring higher in my opinion. ‘Shuffle’ just plods along and doesn’t really go anywhere the same can be said for ‘Mercy was here’. The album closes with two lower key tracks which continue the master-class in how to become a five-star songsmith as both are effective, and as you can guess; well written with no random middle-eight beatdowns coupled with bad screaming and no bizarre kazoo solos ruining solidly structured songs. Fans of JEW et al would be doing themselves a favour by checking out this record sooner rather than later.
Mike
www.solea.org
Golf Records