A Family Of Strangers - ‘New Techniques For Beginners And Champions’
November 15th 2010 09:22
A Family Of Strangers debut EP is a great little disc of soaring emotive rock with pop sensibilities. There’s gang backing vocals, heavy, power chord driven riffs, melody and harmony that is reminiscent of Birds Of Tokyo or After The Fall.
Opening track ‘Lovely (the house at number 23) ‘ opens with a bubbly electrobeat before launching into a crowd pleasing rock number. 'Don't Forget (03.03.03)’ has a real AFI feel with the soft piano verse after the punk “woahs” leading into it. The rest of track sit at a mid pace rock song with emotional vocal harmonies akin to Mr Davey Havok. ‘Here Without You’ is a slower paced ballad for lack of a better word. This softer song is pretty, but really doesn’t deliver like the openers. ‘Silly Love Songs’ has that quirky pop timing of a Weezer track and has radio airplay written all over it. ‘The Velvet Divorce’ is another mellow tune but unlike ‘Here Without You’, is much better written and carries real emotion behind it that makes it one of the best tracks on the EP. Final track ‘Farewell, Mr Hooper’ reverts back to the opener with great rock riffs and gang vocals and ends this EP well.
Featuring Glenn Esmond from The Butterfly Effect, inevitable comparisons will be made. But A Family Of Strangers is a different beast to The Butterfly Effect. The undertones of influence are present in various stages of these songs, as it should, but Glenn Esmond has shown more musical scope with this EP and has delivered a solid record.
Opening track ‘Lovely (the house at number 23) ‘ opens with a bubbly electrobeat before launching into a crowd pleasing rock number. 'Don't Forget (03.03.03)’ has a real AFI feel with the soft piano verse after the punk “woahs” leading into it. The rest of track sit at a mid pace rock song with emotional vocal harmonies akin to Mr Davey Havok. ‘Here Without You’ is a slower paced ballad for lack of a better word. This softer song is pretty, but really doesn’t deliver like the openers. ‘Silly Love Songs’ has that quirky pop timing of a Weezer track and has radio airplay written all over it. ‘The Velvet Divorce’ is another mellow tune but unlike ‘Here Without You’, is much better written and carries real emotion behind it that makes it one of the best tracks on the EP. Final track ‘Farewell, Mr Hooper’ reverts back to the opener with great rock riffs and gang vocals and ends this EP well.
Featuring Glenn Esmond from The Butterfly Effect, inevitable comparisons will be made. But A Family Of Strangers is a different beast to The Butterfly Effect. The undertones of influence are present in various stages of these songs, as it should, but Glenn Esmond has shown more musical scope with this EP and has delivered a solid record.
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