Imperial Teen – Feel The Sound
Album Review by Claudia Boisvert
Back on track after a quite long writing break since 2007, Imperial Teen announced their return this past January 31st with a tender and sweet strength (but still with an undoubtedly strength), by their fifth album, Feel The Sound. The four-member band composed of Roddy Bottum and Will Schwartz on guitars, Lynn Truell on drums and Jone Stebbins on bass, uses once again the duality of female/male vocals, making everyone successively the voice of their sayings.
Keeping some of their old particularities, but digging for a richer and more modern indie sound, Feel The Sound represents a step forward for the band. Actually, it sounds a bit like the last song of their previous album (What You Do, from The Hair the Tv the Baby and the Band) but extended on a full-length record. Luckily, this diversity serves very well the sake of Quality (with a capital “Q”, absolutely), a quality also supported by strong lyrics and nice melodies.
And let’s just talk about the title for a second, “Feel The Sound”. Well, after a pleasant listening, I’d say they chose the name very well: the experience really is about feeling what the music is all about. Every tiny sound is assembled in a big harmony, where it feels like the instruments are as important as voices or lyrics. Maybe that’s what you get when everyone is singer AND musician. But whatever this is for, it’s creating some very sweet-to-the-ears effects, making a great vibes.
It all starts with Runaway, the first song on the record that also might be my favorite one with its catchy tune, and those energetic instruments and vocals. No wonder why it has been chosen to be their first single, because it really stands up! Still, the rest of the album is composed with vivid sounds and percussions very marked, as in Last to Know or All the Same. We somehow notice a frequent use of rhymes; however it simply adds more power to their rhythms instead of making the songs dull and repetitive.
As said, Imperial Teen breaks a little away from its previous albums by a new sound, but songs as Hanging About or Hibernates, bring a bit of strangeness telling us the band still is exploring new horizons. Which, in fact, is not a bad thing; as long as they keep writing their lyrics as they are doing now, I’ll be happy. You have to go beyond the cheerful sounding of the songs and pay a close attention to the lyrics to fully enjoy the album, because those guys have some great words to say.
In all, it is with their harmony between voices and instruments, their thoughtful lyrics, and mostly their amazing beats that Imperial Teen managed to create a new record very charming to hear. When the last and most quiet track, Overtaken, will fade away you’ll slowly come back to reality with a more peaceful mind.
Overall Rating: 4/5
Website: http://imperialteen.com/
5 Comments
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