The Corduroy Suit - Revisions

The Corduroy Suit – Revisions
2014, The Corduroy Suit

The Corduroy Suit is a band basking in personal anonymity, playing loud music even when no one is listening.  They are like the new kid in school: They stick out like a sore thumb, but no one knows much about them.  Rather than start at the beginning, the walk up to you with their latest EP in hand, Revisions, and… no, never mind.  The Corduroy Suit is too cool for that.

Revisions opens with "May Day, Son", an upbeat rocker that won't sit still (and neither will you). The vocal lead swings some heavy charisma behind the mic, demanding attention with his voice and style. The Corduroy Suit eschews standard song structure for a seemingly free/form arrangement that's very much more planned than it might, at first sound. "Left to Survive" is a post-apocalyptic anthem that underscores humanity as its own individual and collective worst enemy. All of this is highlighted by the concept of unrequited love and the survival of the species. There's a dry wit running through the whole affair, holding hands with a sense of the truly bizarre. "Giant Neptune" is a spacey and spaced out rocker full of angst and isolation. Think Bowie gone pop and you're in the right ballpark. 

"Pushing Me Around" is oddly inaccessible, using punctuated rhythms to drive a confused and obfuscated personal narrative. The arrangement is clean and radio ready, but the lyrical constructs simply do not fly. The Corduroy Suit closes with "To Be Shaken" continues the sociopathic storytelling style noted above. The band sells it like they’ve lived it, but the sound is increasingly inaccessible.

The Corduroy Suit live on a musical edge that is hard to come by and harder still to tune into.  There’s no doubt some significant talent in the band, but they spend so much time in the spacey end of the spectrum without any real sense of constructs that make this exploration interesting.  Even with that in mind, Revisions offers some serious glimpses of the band’s ability and potential.  Don’t be surprised if, an album or two down the road, you have an ‘a-ha’ moment about the band.  There’s something real afoot here.

Rating: 3 Stars (Out of 5)

Learn more at www.thecorduroysuit.com.