This sophomore disc from Brooklyn\u2019s Dead Stars made it to me on the Upper West Side via a stopover from our venerable editor Jason\u2019s desk. The band\u2019s brand of fuzzy, blissed-out indie rock got his seal of approval and piqued my interest, too. <\/p>\n
In particular, the lead single \u201cCalm Punk\u201d lodged itself in my head with its loud-soft dynamics, bouncy backbeats, and a fully energized chorus. Described as \u201cslacker rock\u201d in the press release, the lyrics definitely fit this bill: with lines like \u201cMaybe it\u2019s all the same \/ Some things will never change \/ I hope we can figure out just why \/ We don\u2019t need to try.\u201d Indeed, a lot of this disc sounds like it was plucked straight out of the \u201890s with its blend of sorta-garage rock with an infusion of poppy catchiness, garnering comparisons to Weezer, Teenage Fanclub, and the Lemonheads. <\/p>\n
Second cut \u201cIn My Mind\u201d follows in a similar vein, padded with thick guitars (courtesy of guitarist and vocalist Jeff Moore), no-nonsense drums (Jaye Moore) and propulsive basslines (John Watterberg). The lyrics can get a little repetitive, but the chorus is sticky nonetheless. They slow things down on the languorous, lo-fi \u201cStay Here,\u201d which unfolds hazily before leading into the frenetic \u201cBloomer\u201d with its crunchy, driving guitars and another repetitive yet catchy chorus. <\/p>\n
I\u2019ve been spinning Bright Colors <\/i>for the past week or so, and what I\u2019ve found on repeated listens is that while I like many of the songs individually, they don\u2019t quite cohere into a full album experience. There\u2019s a sense of sameness that permeates these cuts, causing me to tune out of the disc even though it only clocks in at 34 minutes. I can see myself plucking out the individual tracks that capture a nice combination of blissing-out and rocking-out, but the album as a whole feels disconnected. It needs a little more of that Weezer-esque ironic sensibility, or more specificity to the lyrics to really make these songs stick with you. <\/p>\n
When you\u2019ve got a closing cut (\u201cOh Well\u201d) that just repeats the words \u201cOh well\u201d over and over the same guitar line as a bunch of the earlier songs, it means that it\u2019s time for an injection of something more<\/i>: more passion and higher stakes to transform this from background music into something that not only grabs your attention but keeps it. Nevertheless, listening to Bright Colors<\/i> makes me want to see Dead Stars live to see what they can really do when they\u2019re let loose. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":48,"featured_media":32683,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[9803],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-44453","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-dead-stars","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/44453","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=44453"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/44453\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32683"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44453"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=44453"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=44453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}