{"id":6275,"date":"2016-02-15T12:48:27","date_gmt":"2016-02-15T12:48:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/album-review-somos-first-day-back\/"},"modified":"2018-03-21T22:16:08","modified_gmt":"2018-03-21T22:16:08","slug":"album-review-somos-first-day-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/album-review-somos-first-day-back\/","title":{"rendered":"Album Review: Somos &#8211; First Day Back"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/78.media.tumblr.com\/3261c08c6c5231446793b409c5e05690\/tumblr_o2jnynj3QG1r8no6so4_1280.jpg\" width=\"250em\" alt=\"image\" title=\"\"><b>Somos<\/b> came from pretty much nowhere to deliver one of 2014\u2019s best records. Indeed, the one-two with The Hotelier\u2019s <i>\u2018Home, Like Noplace Is There&rsquo;<\/i> remains a high watermark, even for the solid gold standards set by the ever-impressive Tiny Engines. <\/p>\n<p>They certainly caught the ears of some influential people, and after a couple of killer splits with Have Mercy and Sorority Noise, and a freshly-inked deal with the resurgent Hopeless Records, <b>Somos<\/b> have returned with <i>\u2018First Day Back\u2019<\/i>, an album that fulfils their early promise. <\/p>\n<p>Now, phrases such as &ldquo;mature&rdquo; and &ldquo;evolved&rdquo; get thrown around a lot when it comes to the clich\u00e9d &ldquo;difficult&rdquo; second album. <i>\u2018First Day Back\u2019<\/i> is both of these. It\u2019s more measured and atmospheric when put up against their debut, <i>\u2018Temple of Plenty\u2019<\/i>; a slower-paced, methodical beast with room to breathe and unfurl. It\u2019s beautifully written and wonderfully paced, tinged with regret and sorrow with Michael Fiorentino sounding forever like he\u2019s on the verge of dissolving into tears. There\u2019s points such as the moribund <i>\u2018Bitter Medicine\u2019<\/i> in which you just want to throw a foil blanket over him and tell him it\u2019ll all be okay. <\/p>\n<p><!-- more --><\/p>\n<p>Yet it\u2019s to <b>Somos<\/b>\u2019 credit that <i>\u2018First Day Back\u2019<\/i> never sounds self-indulgent. <i>\u2018Thorn In The Side\u2019<\/i> and <i>\u2018Alright, I\u2019ll Wait\u2019<\/i> glisten among the sombre atmospherics, all chiming, ringing guitars and pleading urgency, while <i> \u2018Lifted From The Current\u2019<\/i> strays so far away from the blueprint the group established on <i> \u2018Temple of Plenty\u2019<\/i> you\u2019d be hard-pressed, Fiorentino\u2019s distinctive voice aside, to recognise this as the same group. <\/p>\n<p>And it\u2019s here that <i>\u2018First Day Back\u2019<\/i> really excels. My only criticism of <i>\u2018Temple of Plenty\u2019<\/i> was that it was too samey and formulaic. Without repeated, concerted, listens it all blended into one, but there\u2019s no such problems here. Songs such as <i> \u2018Violent Decline\u2019<\/i> stand proudly as characters in their own right and there\u2019s an unpredictably to the songs and structures that genuinely point to growth as songwriters and musicians. Indeed, <b>Somos<\/b> frequently hit some stellar high points with <i>\u2018Problem Child\u2019<\/i> and <i>\u2018Reminded\/Weighed Down\u2019<\/i> pushing the band to a stratospheric new level. <\/p>\n<p>However, a couple of times the songs themselves feel like raw, sketched outlines of ideas. The aforementioned <i>&lsquo;Bitter Medicine\u2019<\/i> is over before it\u2019s begun, while <i>\u2018You Won\u2019t Stay\u2019<\/i>, while being heartbreakingly gorgeous and bitterly intense, feels little more than an interlude. Likewise, the opening track, <i>\u2018Short Walk to the Graveyard Shift\u2019<\/i> is 50 seconds of atmospherics but doesn\u2019t really go anywhere. <\/p>\n<p>That said, <i>\u2018First Day Back<\/i>, while not being the game-changing, all-consuming indie\/punk\/emo crossover smash I\u2019d hoped for, is still hugely enjoyable and a solid step-up from <i>\u2018Temple of Plenty<\/i>. If you\u2019re not yet on board with <b>Somos<\/b>, do yourself a favour.<\/p>\n<p>4\/5<\/p>\n<p><em>\u2019First Day Back&rsquo;<\/em> by <strong>Somos<\/strong> is released on February 19th on <b>Hopeless Records<\/b>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Somos<\/strong> links: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/somosMA\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Facebook<\/a>|<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/somosbandma\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Twitter<\/a>|<a href=\"https:\/\/somos.bandcamp.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Bandcamp<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Words by Rob Mair (<a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/BobNightMair\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">@BobNightMair<\/a>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Somos came from pretty much nowhere to deliver one of 2014\u2019s best records. Indeed, the one-two with The Hotelier\u2019s \u2018Home, Like Noplace Is There&rsquo; remains a high watermark, even for the solid gold standards set by the ever-impressive Tiny Engines. They certainly caught the ears of some influential people, and after a couple of killer [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":15230,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[4008,246,15022,3986],"class_list":["post-6275","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-album-reviews","tag-first-day-back","tag-hopeless-records","tag-rob-mair","tag-somos"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Album Review: Somos - First Day Back - Already Heard Staging<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Somos came from pretty much nowhere to deliver one of 2014\u2019s best records. 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