{"id":25776,"date":"2013-12-04T11:24:38","date_gmt":"2013-12-04T11:24:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/album-review-various-i-surrender-records\/"},"modified":"2018-03-17T15:29:39","modified_gmt":"2018-03-17T15:29:39","slug":"album-review-various-i-surrender-records","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/album-review-various-i-surrender-records\/","title":{"rendered":"Album Review: Various – I Surrender Records Presents: Our Voices"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Here\u2019s the basic concept behind EP \u2018I Surrender Records Presents: Our Voices\u2019<\/em>. You take a handful of punk and punkish bands ranging from a bit famous to pretty famous, you strip them of their frontmen whom you then get to write and record a track of their own. The offerings are largely acoustic-based, but they all avoid the full-on stripped-down aesthetic and sexify their arrangements with a couple of added instruments. The big selling point is, of course, the presence of eternal adolescent Adam Lazzara<\/strong> (of Taking Back Sunday fame), who is joined by Bayside’s Anthony Raneri<\/strong>, Saves The Day’s Chris Conley<\/strong> and I Am The Avalanche’s Vinnie Caruana<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

While it might be the headline of the show, Lazzara\u2019s<\/strong> \u2018Because It Works\u2019<\/em> is arguably the EP\u2019s weakest moment, which isn\u2019t to say that it\u2019s bad, but that\u2019s it\u2019s emphatically adequate. Lazzara<\/strong> mixes his knack for pop-rock catchiness with a light Dylan-esque folk aesthetic. In truth it has everything of reject Taking Back Sunday track with a harmonica, plus there\u2019s a distinctive laziness in the ad nauseam repetitiveness of the chorus, all of which conspire to make this a rather unsatisfying for those looking for something a little left-wing from the hairy man. Anthony Raneri\u2019s<\/strong> \u2018String Me Along\u2019<\/em> is a first step forward. Taking the straight-up pop route, the Bayside man unleashes a steady beat and joyous piano. It\u2019s a sugar-coated ride of smiles and friendliness, and the perfect remedy for a bone-shaking cold morning.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

It may not be as immediately catchy and up-beat, but Chris Conley\u2019s<\/strong> \u2018Diamonds & White Gold\u2019 <\/em>nevertheless echoes the previous track\u2019s similarly cheery mood. Used to achieving a delicate balance between positive pop and a darker, bittersweet edge with his band, Conley<\/strong> largely tips in favour of the former here while retaining a slight hint of those off-kilter instrumentals that keep it from being just a run-of-the-mill pop track. The EP\u2019s most fun track, however, comes courtesy of Vinnie Caruana\u2019s<\/strong> \u2018Sick Down To My Heart\u2019<\/em>. The man applies his husky tones to a driven acoustic ditty –complete with floaty organ\/synth melodies– in which he means to convey a hateful letter to an unknown entity. It\u2019s nasty and irreverent (though not unheard of), and is easily the most compelling contribution on offer.<\/p>\n

I Surrender Records<\/strong> have turned up with a concept that might, with time, prove a rather worthwhile experiment. There are enough distinctive voices in indie\/punk bands out there to fuel a fair amount of these four-track EPs, but the company might find it a more rewarding process if their selection process relied less on reputation than the particular quality of the tracks contributed. Of course, I am taking an idealistic standpoint here which entirely ignores the financial interests at play, but while it may have turned out a competent offering, a less glamourous line-up might enable some artists to indulge in more personal, and thus less familiar, experiments.<\/p>\n

3\/5<\/p>\n

‘I Surrender Records Presents: Our Voices’<\/em> by Various<\/strong> is out now on I Surrender Records<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Words by James Berclaz-Lewis (@swissbearclaw<\/a>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here\u2019s the basic concept behind EP \u2018I Surrender Records Presents: Our Voices\u2019. You take a handful of punk and punkish bands ranging from a bit famous to pretty famous, you strip them of their frontmen whom you then get to write and record a track of their own. The offerings are largely acoustic-based, but they […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25777,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,8181],"tags":[11272,10145,11273,9950,11274,3481],"class_list":["post-25776","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-album-reviews","category-post","tag-adam-lazzara","tag-anthony-raneri","tag-chris-conley","tag-i-surrender-records","tag-our-voices","tag-vinnie-caruana"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nAlbum Review: Various - I Surrender Records Presents: Our Voices - Already Heard Staging<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Here\u2019s the basic concept behind EP \u2018I Surrender Records Presents: Our Voices\u2019. You take a handful of punk and punkish bands ranging from a bit famous to\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Album Review: Various - I Surrender Records Presents: Our Voices - Already Heard Staging\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Here\u2019s the basic concept behind EP \u2018I Surrender Records Presents: Our Voices\u2019. You take a handful of punk and punkish bands ranging from a bit famous to\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/album-review-various-i-surrender-records\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Already Heard Staging\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AlreadyHeard\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-12-04T11:24:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-03-17T15:29:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/tumblr_inline_mx8pwjeQgi1qztcot.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"150\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"150\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@alreadyhearduk\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@alreadyhearduk\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Album Review: Various - I Surrender Records Presents: Our Voices - Already Heard Staging","description":"Here\u2019s the basic concept behind EP \u2018I Surrender Records Presents: Our Voices\u2019. You take a handful of punk and punkish bands ranging from a bit famous to","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"Album Review: Various - I Surrender Records Presents: Our Voices - Already Heard Staging","og_description":"Here\u2019s the basic concept behind EP \u2018I Surrender Records Presents: Our Voices\u2019. You take a handful of punk and punkish bands ranging from a bit famous to","og_url":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/album-review-various-i-surrender-records\/","og_site_name":"Already Heard Staging","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AlreadyHeard\/","article_published_time":"2013-12-04T11:24:38+00:00","article_modified_time":"2018-03-17T15:29:39+00:00","og_image":[{"width":150,"height":150,"url":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/tumblr_inline_mx8pwjeQgi1qztcot.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"admin","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@alreadyhearduk","twitter_site":"@alreadyhearduk","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"admin","Estimated reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/album-review-various-i-surrender-records\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/album-review-various-i-surrender-records\/"},"author":{"name":"admin","@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/#\/schema\/person\/508ed29771f8c5b56fdcf4695f22a2a3"},"headline":"Album Review: Various – I Surrender Records Presents: Our Voices","datePublished":"2013-12-04T11:24:38+00:00","dateModified":"2018-03-17T15:29:39+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/album-review-various-i-surrender-records\/"},"wordCount":540,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/album-review-various-i-surrender-records\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/tumblr_inline_mx8pwjeQgi1qztcot.jpg","keywords":["Adam Lazzara","Anthony Raneri","Chris Conley","I Surrender Records","Our Voices","Vinnie Caruana"],"articleSection":["Album Reviews","Post"],"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/album-review-various-i-surrender-records\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/album-review-various-i-surrender-records\/","url":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/album-review-various-i-surrender-records\/","name":"Album Review: Various - I Surrender Records Presents: Our Voices - Already Heard Staging","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/album-review-various-i-surrender-records\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/album-review-various-i-surrender-records\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/tumblr_inline_mx8pwjeQgi1qztcot.jpg","datePublished":"2013-12-04T11:24:38+00:00","dateModified":"2018-03-17T15:29:39+00:00","description":"Here\u2019s the basic concept behind EP \u2018I Surrender Records Presents: Our Voices\u2019. You take a handful of punk and punkish bands ranging from a bit famous to","inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/album-review-various-i-surrender-records\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/album-review-various-i-surrender-records\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/tumblr_inline_mx8pwjeQgi1qztcot.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/tumblr_inline_mx8pwjeQgi1qztcot.jpg","width":150,"height":150},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/#website","url":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/","name":"Already Heard Staging","description":"Covering the best in alternative music as best as we can","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/#organization","name":"Already Heard","url":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/AH-relaunch-logo-white-bg.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/AH-relaunch-logo-white-bg.jpg","width":500,"height":500,"caption":"Already Heard"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AlreadyHeard\/","https:\/\/x.com\/alreadyhearduk","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/alreadyheard\/","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/already-heard\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/AlreadyHeardMusic","https:\/\/tiktok.com\/@alreadyhearduk","https:\/\/www.threads.net\/@alreadyheard"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/#\/schema\/person\/508ed29771f8c5b56fdcf4695f22a2a3","name":"admin","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/bcf4d491c971b5225a3e3c450225c0ae6ba0217be8f6ecb776a9506d4aa5595f?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/bcf4d491c971b5225a3e3c450225c0ae6ba0217be8f6ecb776a9506d4aa5595f?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/bcf4d491c971b5225a3e3c450225c0ae6ba0217be8f6ecb776a9506d4aa5595f?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"admin"},"url":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/author\/admin\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25776","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25776"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25776\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38463,"href":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25776\/revisions\/38463"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25777"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}