Alternative music is a genre that, occasionally, still has
\nflashes of brilliance come out of its ranks. Too often I hear music
\nthat is classified as “alternative” that is nearly unlistenable,
\nbut then these occasional moments of greatness restore my hope in
\nthe genre.<\/p>\n
Guster is a three-piece band that could eventually be a group
\nthat restores my faith. But the music on their latest release
\nGoldfly<\/i> is so sleepily performed that it almost begs for the
\ncrunch of electric guitars.<\/p>\n
The band – guitarist\/vocalist Adam Gardner, guitarist\/vocalist
\nRyan Miller and percussionist\/vocalist Brian Rosenworcel – has a
\nvery gentle sound to its music, almost hypnotic in a way. While
\nthey do have a few friends fill in the other instruments, they’re
\nalmost not needed in the big picture.<\/p>\n
Tracks like “Great Escape,” “Airport Song” and “Medicine” are
\ninteresting twists on the alternative rock\/pop genre. But the
\nweakness in these tracks is that they all err on the side of
\ngentleness. I’m all for mood music, but I would have liked to hear
\na little musical conflict somewhere along the line on
\nGoldfly<\/i> – you know, something to jar me out of
\ncomplacency.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, the gentle aspect of this album makes it one you
\ncould almost sleep to. Tracks like “Grin” and “Bury Me” flow
\ntogether almost too smoothly. Had a little more variety been tossed
\ninto the mix – an electric guitar here, more intense (meaning,
\nlouder) vocals there – then
\nGoldfly<\/i> would have been an easier album to get through. If
\nyou’re not paying attention, you might miss the fact there’s a
\nbonus eleventh song on the disc.<\/p>\n
All this aside, Guster does have what it takes to shake the
\ngenre of alternative out of its doldrums – provided that Guster can
\nremove the albatross from around their own necks.
\nGoldfly<\/i> is a decent enough effort, but it’s too easy to get
\nsucked into the melancholic atmosphere and go drifting off with the
\nsongs. Music is meant to move the listener, but it should include
\nsome level of challenge to it, and Guster doesn’t seem to be ready
\nto challenge their listeners just yet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27367,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[7281],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-38732","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-guster","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38732","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=38732"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38732\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27367"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=38732"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=38732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}