It never fails… every time I’m ready to declare alternative
\nrock dead, some group comes along to prove to me there are signs of
\nlife in the stagnating genre.<\/p>\n
This time around, it was the duo of Carrie and Libby Johnson,
\nbetter known as 22 Brides, who gave me reason to see new blood in
\nthe alternative rock world. Their third album,
\nDemolition Day<\/i>, reminds me a lot of the Indigo Girls, only
\nwith more of an edge musically and lyrically. For such a short
\nalbum, a lot of enjoyment is packed into it – and that makes all
\nthe difference.<\/p>\n
Often, the lyrics sing about relationships and the pain that can
\nbe caused as a result of them. The title track is one moving
\nexample of the heroine in the song trying to break out of a
\nrelationship that is headed towards (if it’s not already in)
\ntrouble (“Getting out of here is the hard part now \/ You haven’t
\nlearned a thing”). What provides the added punch needed to the song
\nis the musicianship of Libby and Carrie (who often trade leads
\nthroughout the album); they know that a good lyric means nothing
\nwithout a good song to make the message hit home.<\/p>\n
Similar to the title track, “Another Distant Light” looks in at
\na woman who dreams of leaving a dead-end relationship, but doesn’t
\nseem to have the resolve to do so just yet. Lyrics: “He moves into
\nthe distance \/ Each time I start to turn \/ He moves and so I listen
\n\/ To learn what I might learn”. The aspect of feeling trapped is
\nsummed up in the line, “I don’t know how to be free \/ So silently I
\nshrug”. Ka-pow.<\/p>\n
But for the messages of hopelessness conveyed in
\nDemolition Day<\/i>, there are moments where the rays of daylight
\nshine brightly. Tracks like “So It Goes” offer the hopes of passing
\non life’s lessons learned from a parent to a child, even as they
\nlook towards a new chapter in their lives (“Old words beyond us \/
\nWater under the bridge”).<\/p>\n
The surprising thing about 22 Brides is that despite the often
\ndark tone to the lyrics, the sisters Johnson, through their vocal
\ndelivery and often upbeat tone they set in their music, are able to
\nhelp the listener feel better after going through the album. How
\nthey are able to do this I am not certain, but whatever magic
\nthey’re creating, it works well.<\/p>\n
The eleven songs on this disc are surprisingly short; four
\ntracks clock in at under three minutes each. However, 22 Brides
\nseem to know how long it takes to get their message across, and
\nthey don’t want to pad it out with any extraneous material. That
\nbeing said, I would have preferred the disc to be longer; something
\nthis good shouldn’t end so quickly.<\/p>\n
It’s too rock-oriented to call folk, yet it’s too folky to
\nclassify as rock. Instead,
\nDemolition Day<\/i> creates its own unique musical category for
\n22 Brides: just good music.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24762,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5964],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-35966","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-22-brides","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/35966","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35966"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/35966\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24762"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35966"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35966"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=35966"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=35966"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}