Brooklyn-based Heliotropes had been an all-girl band on their debut album, 2013\u2019s A Constant Sea<\/i>, but things changed for their follow-up, this year\u2019s Over There That Way<\/i>. This time, the band is all men, except for singer\/guitarist Jessica Numsuwankijkul. Musically, Over There That Way<\/i> picks up right were A Constant Sea<\/i> left off. The fuzzed out guitars (\u00e0 la Fu Manchu) mix together comfortably alongside other more pop-oriented vocal harmonies and catchy hooks. Even though there are somewhat fewer heavy stoner rock tracks, they are still present and still rock (\u201cWar Isn\u2019t Over\u201d and \u201cDardanelles Part I\u201d are good examples).\u00a0 <\/p>\n
The real change on this album is how some of the songs sounds more upbeat and, in some ways, more traditional. \u201cEasy\u201d sounds like Loaded<\/i>-era Velvet Underground (and that\u2019s a good thing). \u201cWherever You Live\u201d has that classic 1950s-style chord progression, complete with saxophone solo. There is a sweetness to some of the songs that was not found on the previous effort, exhibiting a modicum of artistic growth between albums. Even with this expansion of the palette, the album is still focused and cohesive. <\/p>\n
Starting with the cover photo of a WWII-era soldier in trench coat and cap, the songs are connected thematically by references to WWI and WWII, with suggestive titles like \u201cGoodnight Soldier\u201d or \u201cWar Isn\u2019t Over\u201d to more direct references like \u201cDardanelles\u201d and \u201cNormandy.\u201d Strangely, neither the lyrics nor the music directly address the wars aside from oblique reference, such as in the opening of \u201cNormandy:\u201d\u00a0 \u201cHere we go\/ To a distant shore \/ And we crash \/ In the undertow.\u201d The song \u201cWar Isn\u2019t Over\u201d simply repeats \u201cWar isn’t over \/ War isn’t over \/ I can see it in your eyes.\u201d Using battle imagery from the world wars as an analogue for turmoil in personal relationships is certainly an interesting approach, albeit an understated one. <\/p>\n
While certainly loaded with strong, catchy material, Over There That Way<\/i> somehow falls just short of its predecessor in terms of power and originality. Don\u2019t get me wrong \u2013 this album is a worthy follow-up to A Constant Sea<\/i>, but when you listen to the two side-by-side, the advantage goes to the predecessor.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":92,"featured_media":32860,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[9888],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-44633","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-heliotropes","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/44633","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\/92"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44633"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/44633\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32860"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44633"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=44633"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=44633"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}