{"id":26792,"date":"2013-09-17T16:22:45","date_gmt":"2013-09-17T16:22:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/album-review-signals-midwest-light-on-the-lake\/"},"modified":"2018-03-17T15:25:56","modified_gmt":"2018-03-17T15:25:56","slug":"album-review-signals-midwest-light-on-the-lake","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/album-review-signals-midwest-light-on-the-lake\/","title":{"rendered":"Album Review: Signals Midwest – Light On The Lake"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"image\" I have a confession to make. I\u2019m a terrible reviewer. The reason being that I\u2019m afflicted with a most handicapping of prejudices: a deep partiality to deeper vocals when it comes to pop-punk. As a result, any one of the thousand copies of Mayday Parade and their grating, nasal, high-pitches whine inevitably starts off with less of a chance of winning my heart than the suave grave tones of The Attika State or, my subject of the day, Signals Midwest<\/strong> (to name but two). The real inequality, however, lies in realm considerably deeper than that of mere differences in vocal tones because Signals Midwest<\/strong> feel a million miles above their peers on third album \u2018Light On The Lake\u2019<\/em>.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a bold statement, I am aware of it. Yet the way singer and guitarist Max Stern finds no need to overplay the emotions (a fault I find in many a lauded pop-punk outfit these days) allows the band\u2019s catchy riffs, twinkly licks and emotive chord progressions to shine and compliment one another without feeling like the backing band for an overcompensating failed actor. There\u2019s genuine understated sentiment to be found lurking around the corners of a turn of phrase and a quiver of Stern\u2019s voice. Around that core, Signals Midwest<\/strong> firstly have a healthy tendency to play with rhythms in the space of one gone (one of this reviewer\u2019s preferred ingredients for keeping people from being bored), most notably on \u2018In The Pauses\u2019<\/em>. Secondly, they know when to go soft, when to go strong, when to go fast. In a word they know how to write good songs, and more importantly they don\u2019t restrain themselves with the perceived requirements of genre (there\u2019s a guitar solo in here!).<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Take that above-cited \u2018In The Pauses\u2019<\/em>, Stern\u2019s overview of a painful on-off relationship. It twists and turns, rises and falls in crashes and whispers, and even has that most unlikely mid-point climax with said guitar solo. There\u2019s an element of burlesque here, everything working in unison to pull the listener in the serpentine emotional roller-coaster that Stern suggests. The band however also succeed with simpler recipes. \u2018A Room Once Called Yours\u2019<\/em> storms forward in punk rock fashion with everything on here ripped straight from the pages of midwest pop-punk 101 until the very ending. As the track enters its final quarter, the guitars clean themselves up and get jiggy with some up-beat fast strumming and Stern\u2019s somewhat nonchalant blas\u00e9-ism, building towards a cracking finale (just listen to that background guitar lick!).<\/p>\n

The truth is that the whole album is peppered with those little individual moments of shine. \u2018The Desert to Denver\u2019<\/em> opening verse and lick is a melancholic treat, the choral close of \u2018An Echo, A Strain\u2019<\/em>, the roomy acoustics of \u2018Greater Plains\u2019<\/em> and the rodeo ride of \u2018A Glowing Light, An Impending Dawn\u2019<\/em>. While they do make use of the usual palette of emo-tending punk rock, there isn\u2019t one song on here that doesn\u2019t have something special going for it, something to make that track title stand out rather than merge in that indistinct mass of titles on iTunes. That\u2019s just about the best you can do with pop-punk.<\/p>\n

3.5\/5<\/p>\n

‘Light On The Lake’<\/em> by Signals Midwest<\/strong> is out on the 22nd of October on Tiny Engines.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Signals Midwest<\/strong> links: Facebook<\/a>|Twitter<\/a>|Tumblr<\/a>|Bandcamp<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n

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

I have a confession to make. I\u2019m a terrible reviewer. The reason being that I\u2019m afflicted with a most handicapping of prejudices: a deep partiality to deeper vocals when it comes to pop-punk. As a result, any one of the thousand copies of Mayday Parade and their grating, nasal, high-pitches whine inevitably starts off with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26793,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,8181],"tags":[5879,11793,150,2500,2798,206],"class_list":["post-26792","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-album-reviews","category-post","tag-album-reviews","tag-light-on-the-lake","tag-music","tag-review","tag-signals-midwest","tag-tiny-engines"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nAlbum Review: Signals Midwest - Light On The Lake - Already Heard Staging<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I have a confession to make. I\u2019m a terrible reviewer. 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