Never Shout Never - Time Travel
2011, Loveway/Reprise
2011, Loveway/Reprise
Joplin, Missouri rockers Never Shout
Never leap forth in 2009 with their first self-produced album, Time Travel.
After several efforts at conforming their sound to the wishes of others, Never
Shout Never speak fully in their own voices on Time Travel. The seismic
shift in sound and style is a far cry from their previous effort, Harmony.
Fans will either love or hate the new sound, but the change also opens the door
to an entire demographic of new fans who enjoy modern rock deeply influenced by
the sounds of the psychedelic 60's.
"Time Travel" is ethereal,
synth-based anti-pop that sounds like a blend of Alan Parsons and Coldplay. The
sound is intriguing, if a bit discommoding, "Awful" is
anachronistically catchy, like a blend of The Beatles and ELO dressed in
diatonics and fleshed out on the shared borderlands of Brit Rock and Prog.
"Simplistic Trance-Like Getaway" is something of a love song, built
from a subdued yet incessant melody and wrapped in full-bodied sound. "Complex
Heart" sounds like an attempt to blend Adult Contemporary Pop and Emo
styles in a fractious marriage that's overwrought and overdone. Imagine Queen
meets Air Supply and you're in the ballpark. "Lost At Sea" plays to
the prog and psychedelic image that Never Shout Never seems intent to craft.
The modal vocal harmonies add cool effect, but the run on chorus contrasts
poorly against the point-by-point quarter-note rhythms of the verse.
When a band takes back the reins on
its sound for the first time after years of depending on other producers, the
result is bound to be a bit messy at first. So it is with Never Shout Never on Time
Travel. It's not a bad record, but Time Travel suffers from
self-guidance by a band suddenly free to do what it wants, but uncertain about
their chosen direction. It will take at least one more album, and some time on
the road, for Never Shout Never to become fully comfortable steering their own
ship musically, and the next album will be much more instructive about the
direction of the band than is Time Travel. Nevertheless, this is a
compelling document of a band in transition, with some almost brilliant moments
to be found in the search.
Rating: 3 Stars (Out of 5)
CD Download
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