Postavant

Most know that my most anticipated album for quite a while has been Mute Math’s follow-up to their self titled debut, which while not without some problems, was really some fantastic stuff that showed a lot of room for growth. They’ve been popular enough but I’ve been waiting for them to really break out, and while getting on the Twilight soundtrack sure made them more “popular”, it isn’t quite what I had in mind. The band has been quoted saying that “if you loved the first album, you’ll hate this one”, and while the two are different, the differences were calculated and for the better, and while it doesn’t flow nearly as well as a collective piece as the first one did on my first two listens, this album is pretty damn solid.

The first thing one would notice about this new album is that all the hubbabaloo about the band trying to break from being on a WB’s Christian label and becoming a band that was “completely apolitical and secular” has worked. They’ve always been subtle and simple with any messages they’ve put across, not being outright in its God-based symbology, but now it seems completely gone, which is refreshing because now it’s just as great as before but harmless in the way that it is far less alienating than it was before, and even then, it wasn’t all that alienating compared to some more forceful Christian music where the instrumentals and sound and vocals get drowned out by messages.

This album starts out incredibly strong, as The Nerve serves as a strong single track (moreso than Spotlight did last November) and Backfire, Clipping and No Response are up there as three of the best songs the band has recorded. However, the tracks begin to lose momentum and the album sort of lugs along, going from great to decent with too much slow. A little tweaking with track order or some transitional tracks like the last album could do some good. Sadly, Clockwork and Voice in the Silence, two tracks off the album, are up there with the best of their new recordings, and missing entirely off here, though Clockwork was used as a B-side.

So do I love it? Yes. Will I be listening to it religiously and almost burning out the CD like a VHS? Yes. Should you buy it? Yes. Or just download it like I did, with the intent of buying later. I’m hosting it all on Youtube right now. I’m a bad person. Oops, Youtube is protecting this like crazy. Muted after 15 seconds of being online. Boo.

Garrett pissed me off too much.

Popularity: unranked [?]

Tags: Armistice, Armistice review, music review, Mute Math, Mute Math Armistice, mute math new album, Mute Math review, Review

This entry was posted on Sunday, August 9th, 2009 at 5:34 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.