764-Hero -- Hipster Music

Get Here and Stay

They've definitely smoothed out some of the rough edges on this album compared to their debut. Like the transition of Built to Spill from ramshackle indie rockers to splendid indie dream popsters, these guys have filled out their sound, made it more lush and flowing and toned down some of the vocal emoting from their beginnings. This is the rainy Northwest sitting around farmhouse kitchen tables in low-top Converse with a newspaper and a song in your heart. The music is somber without being dreary (or slow), and manages to elicit the emotion they were going for in their first album without resorting to screeching or theatrics. The songs swell and ebb and make for a perfect soundscape for a bad day.

Nobody Knows This Is Everywhere

Funny enough, these guys actually pepped up for their swan song. They took elements of all their previous albums and threw them into this one. They changed up some tempos and the lead singer came out of his shell and emoted a little more like the old days. These are the best hooks and immediate melodies they've written, and of course it's the last of their career as a band. They've always been shelled as a BTS imitator (and deservedly so), but they've dialed back some of that influence on this one and brought the fire. Instead of ever song being all lush and strummy, they've stripped some down, moving into the deep sea wall of sound on the choruses and then moving in and out of looser instrumentation on the verses. This is their strongest album by quite a bit, and it figures they'd go and break up afterwards. I hate to lose a guitar rock band (there are so few left) in their prime. Oh well.

Salt Sinks & Sugar Floats

This album does sound suspiciously like a Built to Spill outtakes record. Maybe we can blame it on the Pacific Northwest, or maybe too many hours listening to their heroes. Whatever the case, this debut doesn't go a long way to proving that a record full of shambling emo-like rambling can turn into solid songwriting and catchy hooks, but just wait a couple records and you'll see. This is their "feeling-'em-out" record.

Weekends of Sound

They've amped up the musicianship on this one. The basslines have become more snaking, the time signatures a little more diverse and the song structures more complicated. It's not that they've strayed far from their niche, of course, but the songs just seem more full of life and melody. "Without Fire" is a good example of the flow of the album, with its feel of the cold ocean and the rocky shores of Seattle. Their songs, as usual, don't sound a whole lot different from track to track, but it's not a problem, as their albums are always taken better as a whole, rather than on a song by song basis. They inflict a moodóa melancholy moodóbut what is the point of music if not to elicit some sort of emotion from the listener?