It seems like everyone in music has turned towards the classics lately, whether it\u2019s Wolfmother aping Led Zeppelin, most of the White Stripes’ catalog or the Raconteurs\u2019 plucked-from-the-70s debut. <\/p>\n
Whether it turns out well (Scissor Sisters bringing back glam rock) or laughably (The Darkness, anyone?), the rarer finds, though, are the acts who manage to incorporate their influences into a fresh sound rather than just molding themselves into the latest Bob Dylan or the new Beatles (though, of course, those digestible labels are often the kiss of death for most musicians). <\/p>\n
But with an eye turned towards the analog of yesteryear and another focused firmly on our current digital revolution, Portland, Oregon indie rockers Stars of Track and Field\u2019s Centuries Before Love And War <\/i>is one of the most unique albums of the year (and all without ever having to slip into a catsuit, Justin Hawkins and Jake Shears). <\/p>\n
Sounding like Pink Floyd and The Postal Service on some tracks, The Beatles, Coldplay and Built To Spill on others, the three-piece (Jason Bell and Kevin Calaba both on guitars\/vocals, with Calaba taking on keyboards also, and drummer Daniel Orvik) mixes lush choruses, stark synths and muted electronica along with Calaba\u2019s evocative vocals to create Centuries\u2019<\/i> sparking soundscapes. <\/p>\n
Opening the album is \u201cCenturies\u201d which starts out with a sampling of vinyl scratching and spacey harmonies but quickly builds to its soaring, anthemic chorus amid crescendoes of guitars before fading into \u201cMovies Of Antarctica,\u201d the album\u2019s lead single. It\u2019s exactly what indie pop should sound like, with its mix of jangling guitars and Calaba\u2019s ethereal vocals on lines like \u201cTrading touch for time \/ the camera catches all \/ it\u2019s over now. Faded prints and sample times \/ novas thrashing in your eyes.\u201d Though \u201cMovies Of Antarctica,\u201d like most of the material on Centuries,<\/i> is bittersweet as it deals with what Calaba terms \u201cmaligned memory and love loss,\u201d that melancholy is fittingly contrasted by the track\u2019s U2-esque blend of sweeping stadium rock. <\/p>\n
Next up is \u201cWith You,\u201d which turns from the glimmer of the album\u2019s opening tracks towards a more desolate beauty with its stark arrangement and bleak delivery — until it abruptly shifts into an unexpectedly lush chorus and a pleading, piano-drenched outro. Continuing in a similar vein is \u201cLullaby For A G.I.\/Don\u2019t Close Your Eyes\u201d which, though it begins with ambient blips of electro and echoing, dreamlike vocals, seamlessly replaces the digitized drums with acoustic guitars and a swirling, hypnotic repetition of the chorus. <\/p>\n
The coupling of \u201cReal Time\u201d and \u201cArithmatik\u201d isn\u2019t ideal as both stick to the band\u2019s tried-and-true formula of electronics, then guitars, then back to organic elements again, and end up sounding fatally similar, but the gorgeous chorus on \u201cReal Time\u201d is easily one of the most endearing and instantly catchy on the album.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
On the whole, Centuries Before Love And War <\/i>is an album you can listen to a hundred times and manage to still find something new buried in the same tracks each time. For a band that found themselves without a bassist right before recording this album, Stars Of Track And Field manage to revitalize themselves to become more than just the next Radiohead, U2 or Postal Service: rather, they\u2019re an amalgamation of many of their predecessors and, as a result, end up sounding like far more than the sum of their parts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":48,"featured_media":28569,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[7853],"rating":[5613],"class_list":["post-40039","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-stars-of-track-and-field","rating-rating-a-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/40039","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\/48"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40039"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/40039\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28569"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=40039"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=40039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}