Envy On The Coast - Lowcountry

Finally.

After many long months of waiting, Long Island based Envy On The Coast released their sophomore effort Lowcountry, originally slated for release in August 2009. Upon first listen, I must say to all other bands: This is what a sophomore album should sound like. I am blown away by the progress this band has made in the years between Lucy Gray and Lowcountry. Now, I have been a huge fan of Lucy Gray since I first listened to it in 2007, but Lowcountry has taken what EOTC established three years ago and expanded on it monumentally. Ryan Hunter's emotionally charged vocals have been improved on tenfold in the past years, and backup vocalist/guitarist/keyboardist Sal Bossio lays down some very creative guitar work on this album while still remaining a stone wall in the realm of backing vocals and harmony.

The first track on the album, "Death March On Two, Ready?" sets the precedent for the rest of Lowcountry; clean guitars with a southern twang that suddenly explode into a beautiful wall of sonic pleasure. Ryan Hunter's vocals on this song are frightfully reminiscent of Brand New's Jesse Lacey, circa The Devil and God Are Raging Inside of Me, and I mean that in the most complimentary way possible.

Next, the band gets straight up dirty on the song "The Devil's Tongue" featuring distorted bass lines, and Hunter's ever-present and soulful vocals pounding the listener into obedience with all that he preaches. This song actually showcases one of EOTC's most interesting steps forward - the interesting use of screaming in conjunction with clean vocals, but not in the modern metalcore sense; they manage to keep the mix unique to their own style.

Subsequently, the album keeps the listener on edge with the single "Head First Into The Water" in which Hunter investigates his own life as a touring musician and his metaphorical rebirth and baptism that he's experienced in recent years. Unbelievably catchy song, ambient guitar work, clean vocals, and EOTC's ever-present rhythmic section showing off just what they can do.

Following the single, EOTC slows things down a bit with their old-western-town standoff song "Puritan Dirt Song" which, I can honestly say, is the only song that makes me want to be called to a shootout at high noon, following a lengthy bar fight. Beautifully crafted song. Also, the chorus features an electric organ synth, typical of reggae, which adds very interesting depth to the instrumentation.

The next track, "Laugh Ourselves To Death" has one of the more interesting rhythm section intros/features of any song I've heard in a few years. Great vocals as always; very memorable, very catchy.

"The Great American T-Shirt Racket" is a very interesting song and one of the more lyrically critical-of-society-and-materialism on the entire album, featuring lines such as "Now I have a t-shirt to go with my scars." The band experiments with a slower, more relaxed, very chill tempo on this song, which gives the verses a pretty cool feel and provides the song with some individuality.

"Southern Comfort" is one of my favorite songs on the album. Listen to it and you'll know why. Very interesting sampling to start the song, brilliant instrumental introduction, perfection all around. Great lyrics as well.

"*" is a pretty useless track that subjects the listener to about 40 seconds of listening to someone's answering machine. For the life of me, I can't figure out why they put it on the album.

"Like I Do" follows "*" and has some of the most incredible lyrics on the album. One of the most emotional songs on the album, largely due to the incredible vocal contrast between Ryan and Sal and the harmonies between them as well.

"Numb" is up next, and is reminiscent of the first few tracks on the album. Another one of my favorite tracks on the album...spectacular vocal work once again, but I imagine you're getting tired of hearing that, aren't you? Oh well, suck it up.

"Made of Stone" is essentially the album's "acoustic-song-by-a-heavier-band" as is common on many released these days. It stands out from the crowd, however, with it's southern twang and seamless performance quality that really showcases how well-rounded all of the musicians in Envy On The Coast are.

"Clean of You" has one of the most abrasive, yet spectacularly captivating choruses of any song that I've heard lately, which is an awesome quality for songs to have. Or maybe that's just my opinion, whatever. Either way, it's a great song, with a pretty sweet hidden track at the end (titled "Just South of Heaven") which ends the album on a high note and leaves the listener thoroughly satisfied.

Overall: 8.7/10

So there you go, that's my review of Envy On The Coast's new release Lowcountry, in stores and online now. Go buy it, you won't regret it! (I'd recommend the Deluxe Version, seeing as it comes with 4 bonus tracks that are all pretty good)
New review coming in the next few days, hopefully, but I'm headed to the beach on Saturday, so we'll see how that goes I guess.

-John

EDIT: Wow, okay, so I'm never going to do a song-by-song analysis of an album again unless people really want one, because that ended up being such a long review. I applaud you if you made it to the end.

Oh, I'm Blogging?

Who wants some album and concert reviews, as well as humorous rants and my own opinions on things? I think a better question is...who doesn't?

Mind you, the main focus will be album and concert reviews, just sayin'.


-John