Sprightly Moans: Demos III
By Chris Romans of Hear The Indie.
Emotion is one of the prevalent qualities on Demos III as far as I am concerned. I know this is a fairly cliche or useless descriptor, but hear me out. While so much garage rock, punk rock, black metal, and other lo-fidelity forms of music are intrinsically emotional in one way or another, it often feels like a facade. So many modern punk bands with their pseudo-anarchistic mannerisms, roaring guitars, and deafening vocalists belting into a microphone feel empty to me. Granted, this is not every act in the genre, but it seems like the music is manufactured for the purpose of sales. As such, emotions are present but empty, used simply to lure people already in an emotional state of mind. Lyrical topics are followed quickly, with so many artists hitting on contrived and stale topics, such as governmental oppression. Sprightly Moans manages to surpass my emotional expectations with unique lyrical topics, often bordering on beautiful poetry (and sometimes surpassing the borderline) and a fairly interesting manner of expressing these thematic concepts musically under the guise of lo-fi garage rock.
Indeed, the lyrics on the whole are a point well worth noting. With each track lending some sort of evocative phrasing or idea. Additionally, the ability of the lyric producer to begin by examining a topic so worn out, then throw in his own existential perspective. I can not get "Love Is Nothing Without Eternity" out of mind, not only because of it's hauntingly simply melody, but because of the words sung throughout. They are catchy because they rely heavily on elements of folk and contemporary pop music, almost bordering on a religious tune by the likes of Michael W. Smith at moments, and it leads to an extraordinary output with the focal point being love, death, some sense of existential longing, crossing the border where nihilism (and a generalized disattachment to the physical universe) meets a longing for life...
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