You Don't Know Emo

Beautiful piano and acoustic guitars with captivating strings in the background bring in this fantastic album known as I Would Set Myself On Fire For You's Believes in Patterns. A suiting introduction for the beautiful, dramatic album that follows.

I Would etc.'s older stuff had bad production and sounded like CTTS wannabe’s. It was good and creative sure, but I still had the feeling it wasn't anything spectacular.
This album is a complete change in opinion for me.

This album is what the Emo scene needs. It's creative, beautiful, dramatic but still brutal. "Let The Jazz Band In" sounds like The Mars Volta.
When was the last time you heard an Emo band who did something like that? The guitar work on this album is great, it's no Hot Cross but it's still good. A lot of acoustic guitar work which is surprising.
Good drum work as you should expect from an Emo band. The vocals are great. Beautiful female vocals, brutal male vocals. "Country Song" has some really good male vocals as well.
The violins are really present on this album which is definitely a plus. The production still isn't the best, but it's definitely a step up for I Would. My only complaint is that the guitars awkward at some points and at times the songs seem like they're dragging on a bit.

People who listen to this album expecting the same RAWR RAWR RAWR raspy voice over the same grinding guitar like Usurp Synapse and Ampere and Palatka are going to be greatly surprised.
This is a lot like Circle Takes the Square with the long beautiful build ups and quieter moments but still the heavy moments you know from Emo.
But then again it has things CTTS would never do. A song like "Country Song" is definitely a rarity in the Emo scene. It's got acoustic guitars, beautiful strings, and fantastic singing.
Would you ever expect that from a band that put out an album like I Would's s/t? I sure as hell didn't.
This album delivers more than I could ever expect.
I hope I Would keeps me guessing like this for a lot longer.

Final Rating:
8/10

-Brian

I Would Set Myself on Fire for You

StickFigure distro.

    I first heard 1905 when a friend recommended them, as I was a fan of the male/female combination of Circle Takes The Square. It took me awhile to actually get around to listen to them, but when I did, I couldn’t put the album down. It was staggering. Which is why it’s getting a revisit review.

     The album starts and ends strong, as all albums should. But something’s different about this record. The tone shifts quite frequently. We have a lot of political metaphors (“Always look through the same window, of course you’ll have the same view”), but the dynamic always switches. For instance, the high-energy track Fall is followed by something quite out of place, but seemingly perfect: an acoustic ballad, reminiscent of the sit ins of the 60’s.

    Quote is the perfect song to use for a mix tape for mellow music. And then the dynamic switches once again for the title track, Voice. Masterfully done, Voice starts with a quiet bass line that sounds as if you’ve accidentally bought a surf album. Then it gets harsher. Voice is what Lennon would have written if he had lived to see the state of the country. And if Voice isn’t, the following track, Can’t Change Everything, is. Can’t Change Everything brings to the table screaming with a bit of spoken word – very reminiscent of Dawn Of Capitalism by the great Anarcho-Emo band Kakistocracy.

    The dynamic changes a lot over the course of this album, in song and between songs. Then, we get to A Conversation. A Conversation seems to be recorded on a tape recorder, and is a bit of spoken word, with nothing but ambience behind it. Then comes the finale track, For Sale, which if a fantastic finish for such a high energy album.

    Over the course of the song, 1905 switches paths on you so much, you feel compelled to keep listening. Something in the lyrics, something in the combination of singing and screaming, something in the dynamics of the instrumentals, makes you keep listening, if not to see what’s happening next.

    So, what happens when the final bit of For Sale is done? You do what you have to do as an American, and as a human being. You go back to Introduction and start all over.

The Verdict: 5 out of 5 stars

             -Holly Black

Exotic Fever Records
Purchase Voice from Cr!me