I listen to a lot of music and having new music given to me every week to listen to and review, I’m not going to lie, is pretty damn good. So when a band like These Days gets sent my way, I can’t help but love doing this more. With members having played with the likes of You Me At Six and Futures, they’ve gained some experience which is evident in their songwriting.
The album opens with ‘Only You,’ a track that completely misled me. Starting off mellow, it breaks into an upbeat, powerfully driven song, with a vocal hook that’s instantly likeable. A track that is sure to be great live, I’m only first song in and I’m really liking these guys already.
With a sound appropriate for the increasingly popular music scene at the moment, These Days have honed theirs down and I’ve no doubt that they’ll fit in and make their mark just fine. Evidence of influences from Futures, and even possibly Jimmy Eat World, ‘Smiles’ is another upbeat number with the touch of innocence necessary to help you relate to the songs, and great vocals that give that extra edge.
No strangers to great hooks and strong melodies, ‘Brightest Eyes’ and ‘Peace of Mind’ are songs that are perfect examples of what These Days are really capable of. ‘Stones’ is another great example too, with the Jimmy Eat World influence becoming more evident.
‘Always’ is a song that shows a slightly heavier side to These Days, although I can’t help but think this song sounds like ‘Move Along’ by The All-American Rejects. One of the strongest tracks on the album it almost doesn’t sound right to me somehow, a bit too cliché, although I’m not denying it’s a great track.
The heavier side continues with ‘Heart of Gold,’ with another vocalist taking some of the harsher lead lines, but the harmonies and big sounding chorus is still evident. Showing versatility, this song proves that there is more to These Days than radio-friendly catchy songs.
It seems the heavier tracks were left to the end of the album, maybe to finish the album off with a crescendo? Or maybe to lure the listener into a false sense of security before showing their true, darker colours? They can write a great heavy song and with these songs towards the end of the album, maybe this is the direction they’re headed? ‘Misery’ and ‘Awake’ are big: not in the same sense as the earlier tracks with catchy chorus’, but in the way of the instrumentation and the vocals. As the album draws to an end the drums are used more heavily, and the the songs take a darker twist. As the last song cuts off I honestly want to hear more: it sounded like they were only just getting into it.
‘Souls’ really is a great album, these guys have some great songs that should definitely get them noticed. Having only been together for just over a year, if they haven’t grown into their sound yet then I can’t wait to hear them do it.
4/5
‘Souls’ by These Days is available now on Engineer Records.
These Days links: Facebook|Twitter
Words by Callum McPhee (@Callum0510)
