Nothing sounds new anymore. <\/p>\n
Nothing. Even records praised as having some sort of \u201cnew\u201d sound don\u2019t really sound new<\/i>. Pop music can be innovative or forward-looking\/thinking, but it\u2019s all been done before. All of it. Anyone who says otherwise is fooling himself. It\u2019s funny then that a new<\/i> band like The New Frontiers can make such a blatantly unoriginal record and still manage to catch the attention of this here critic. You\u2019d think that because it\u2019s all been done before you\u2019d wanna go straight to the source rather than listen to a record that at the end of the day is just an exercise in influence mimicry. <\/p>\n
Let\u2019s make something perfectly clear: the debut album Mending <\/i>from The question is whether or not imitation negates a record\u2019s intrinsic value or beauty. I don\u2019t think so. Mending<\/i> — predictable as it may be — is stuffed with soul. That\u2019s what makes the difference here: sincerity. New Frontiers frontman Nathan Pettijohn delivers a perfect vocal performance and it\u2019s the kind of subdued, intimate, bedroom vocal reminiscent of Travis vocalist Fran Healy\u2019s pitch-perfect pipes. Soulful, elegant, and sincere vocals always manage to transcend almost any other feature of an album.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/p>\n The soaring arrangements on Mending<\/i> do precisely what they should do for mellow, sensitive, alternative rock: they elevate the dynamic, making it even harder for the listener to ignore the record\u2019s coffee-house beauty. Matt Goldman\u2019s production is excellently executed, even if the mix is a bit bass-heavy at times. Music like this relies heavily on big-thinking production and Jacob Chaney\u2019s guitar work combined with Guy Turner\u2019s keyboard playing satisfies this requirement perfectly.<\/p>\n Album opener \u201cBlack Lungs\u201d steals the show, no doubt. Other slow-burning highlights like \u201cThe Day You Fell Apart,\u201d \u201cMan Down,\u201d \u201cMirrors,\u201d and \u201cWalking On Stones\u201d tie Mending\u2019s <\/i>eleven tracks together quite nicely and in the end what you get is a competent record from what is clearly Nathan Pettijohn\u2019s blossoming songwriting. <\/p>\n This record isn\u2019t going to change anyone\u2019s life, and despite its being far more artistically advanced than most everything else happening on the radio, it\u2019s not going to sell a million copies. But you don\u2019t get the feeling that\u2019s what The New Frontiers are shooting for. Sounds to me like a band that just wants to make their music the way they want to make it and hope that somewhere along the way their records will mean something<\/i> to someone.<\/i> <\/p>\n One thing\u2019s for sure: this is perfect Sunday morning music because it encourages self-reflection, which is an activity often saved for lonely Sunday mornings. As its title suggests, Mending<\/i> is a record about repair and restoration. It\u2019s reflective and carefully laid out and The New Frontiers are making music that matters to them, and that\u2019s usually what makes for the most honest kind of record, even if their honesty is drowned in a format that makes it difficult for snobs to appreciate.<\/p>\n But if you can accept the music for what it is and just immerse yourself in Mending\u2019s<\/i> <\/u>self-evident sincerity and heartfelt poetry, then the record will just sort of reveal itself as one definitely worth hearing again. I bet the live show is even better. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":65,"featured_media":29522,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[8274],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-41109","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-the-new-frontiers","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41109","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\/65"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41109"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41109\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29522"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=41109"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=41109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}