It's not only an overt and all-pervading Scottishness that We Were Promised jetpacks share with labelmates The Twilight Sad: a slow-building repetitive riff-based approach to songwriting, with guitars swathed in a sonic haze and dominant percussion are elements common to both bands, too.
This five-track EP is never going to be tearing up the dancefloors or be one to get things buzzing at a house party. Taken as a whole, it's a fairly grey affair, but while it may be dour, it's certainly not dreary. Opener 'A Far Cry' is atmospheric and moody, with a dense, fog-coated guitar to the back of the mix providing texture to the bleak vista, in which the crashing cymbals and loping drums break through to jarring effect.
|
The short instrumental interlude, 'The Walls Are Wearing Thin', which sits in the middle of the set, is a moving melancholic post-rock composition, and provides a strategically placed respite from the barren reflections of 'Short Bursts' and 'The Benefit of Hindsight'.
If you want something cheery and uplifting, avoid. If you're after something that errs toward the morose and understatedly intense, then turn it up and wallow.
|
