Like you’ve watched Schindler’s List after visiting a late Goya exhibition…
Released by Triple Crown Records on 17 March 2017 and reviewed by Ian Savage
Don’t expect an easy ride with this album. Connecticut’s Sorority Noise have made something of a trademark of using pretty harrowing subject matter – largely the lives, descents and deaths of those close to them – to forge massive post-rock tunes over the past four years or so, and You’re Not As ________ As You Think You Are is no different.
From a cursory listen, they sonically share more with the UK’s Bombay Bicycle Club and US compatriots The National than with many of the more punk-edged outfits they tend to be associated with – although there’s certainly flashes of the likes of The Replacements and The Gaslight Anthem in there (the latter even getting a song namechecked in second tune ’A Portrait Of’).
It’s uncomfortable listening lyrically at times, nihilistic themes butting heads with religion and the time-honoured tropes of lost loves and forsaken friends. The instrumentation is pretty much flawless throughout: the ‘two-guitar/bass/drums’ lineup is barely touched by studio embellishment, meaning that a live show stands to be just as emotional and energetic as the record.
The whole album runs to only a smidge over thirty minutes, but listening ‘properly’ is likely to leave you feeling like you’ve watched Schindler’s List after visiting a late Goya exhibition; by turns uplifting and depressing, with an exhilarating thrill of simply being alive running throughout. Like I said, not an easy ride by any definition – but what worth doing was ever easy?
8 out of 10
Track listing:
- No Halo
- A Portrait Of
- First Letter From St. Sean
- A Better Sun
- Disappeared
- Car
- Where Are You
- Second Letter From St. Sean
- Leave The Fan On
- New Room
