As any bands lifespan grows, so does their experience in both writing and playing music, as well as their desire to stay relevant. These are natural occurrences that cannot be helped, and on their current full length ‘Haze’, The American Scene have decided it was their time to grow. The band even used a strange marketing campaign around the release in which they placed songs on USB drive and placed them in different cities around the US for fans to find and decode. A different tactic to say the least, but it worked to help ‘Haze’ become one of the most anticipated albums this year.
From the outset ‘Haze’ sees the band move into a slightly different territory from their previous offerings, sounding less like the pop rock band they were and having more in common with current british indie bands such as The 1975 and Two Door Cinema Club. This is by no means a bad thing as their playing is more accomplished, with new avenues explored, and some of the catchiest hooks this side of a radio friendly pop song. Lyrically the band are still on fine form, with the coming-of-age narrative on display in ‘Nails Of Love’ and ‘4th and Broadway’, all of which are going to be pleasing crowds everywhere along with the lead track ‘Royal Blue’. The sense of melody and upbeat rhythms are unrelenting throughout ‘Haze’, as every track could be released as a single, particularly the fantastic ‘What I Could Gather’ with its high end, delayed guitar licks and driving drumming that gets stuck in your head even if you wish it didn’t.
The only downside to ‘Haze’ is that it borders on being a bit too repetitive for its own good, and although no wants to hear an album of 10 songs that sound like 10 different bands with no cohesion at all, it is also slightly displeasing when every track sounds the same. The songs are well crafted, theres no taking that away from The American Scene, but after the half way point and you reach ‘Over To You’ it gets a bit monotonous. For all its catchy moments, the hooks are all very similar, and the harmonies start to sound the same in each song, which makes some of the latter moments on the album seem a little forgettable unfortunately.
With that said, this is far from a bad album. If anything, it is a good album with only the repetitive nature of it stopping it from being a great album. It will be a shock to some fans to see the direction that the band have gone, but no doubt the growth will be welcomed by others and will surely see the band start to pick up a more indie based audience as time goes on. It may take a while before The American Scene transition into a fully fledged indie band, but they certainly have the ability to do so over time.
GLEN BUSHELL