You know what happens on Fridays?
Friyays you mean?
You know what happens on Friyays?
It’s before the one really fun day ending in Y…but also the day where new music usually drops these days
The latter is the answer! New music drops and maybe 6 months later we remember to review it.
So… let’s switch that one up
We’re improving thoughhhhhhh
(kind of)
Sometimes. For now, let’s get this review out before the record drops. Emblem from Chicago is releasing Everything is Strange on Friday through Sell the Heart.
That’s all the buzzwords I have in me. Band, city, record, date, label.
Sure! Sounds good. I did listen to the singles Emblems released ahead of the new record and maybe a couple songs from a prior release
I’m going in blindly outside those two seconds I checked to figure out the corner of sound they’re in
It’s like we’re music journalists… buzzwordbuzzwordbuzzwordadjectiveotherbandnamedropbuzzword
Take my internet if I ever write about uplifting riffs and technical drum fills, thanks.
Ditto and noted
~ LO\/M ~
Aight
Lovm? Loum? What does it mean!
Great question. Specific lettering?
Harrowing intro. Sad, reflective – a bit droning on, and… that was it. That was the intro!
Very much an intro. Definitely setting a mood before going into the rest of the record (I think)
LO\/M
Aha!
~ Somewhere Safe ~
You’d think it would seamlessly follow the intro, but it’s a separate track!
Yep, true start of the album right now!
It reminds me so much of another song (me every review at least once), but I can’t figure it out. This vocal intro.
Banging open I’ll say
Very mid-00’s
And then this guitar, I did not see this guitar coming.
Definitely reminiscent of atmospheric post-hardcore from that era. Also wracking my brain trying to figure out what this specifically reminds me of. Fun!
I can dig this track. It’s fast and straightforward. There’s almost some industrial post vibes to it. Look I don’t know genres. You know what I mean.
I got ya 👍🏾
Definitely feeling a level of proficiency with the instumentation
Seeming pretty thought out to me
Institutionalization?
Title?
~ Animals ~
Joke on spelling instrumentation there
Ah
Ah, this is one of the singles I heard this afternoon
This song is more subdued. Like my sense of humor!
Lololol
This seems a very good walking through a foggy dusk or dawn song.
Man, I really loved this sound when I was growing up in the mid/late aughts. Still have an affinity for it.
It’s a very you sound. It’s been on my hit or miss list. I like it, I don’t seek it out.
Absolutely
2/2 so far
There’s these small moments there’s a hint of aggression, and then it subdues again.
Yeah, those moments are pretty measured
Also when I listened to this earlier I was expecting this massive crescendo and it didn’t come.
I even played this song 2 more times this afternoon looking for it 😅
~ Worried Sick ~
This is one of the 5 minute long tracks on this album, let’s see if I can keep my attention (it wavers after 2 minutes and usually is lost by the third)
Fare thee well traveler!
Yep. The kind of drawn out intro I tend to find engrossing
And I tend to find boring, haha
This song has more of an introverted feeling, not subdued. There’s a difference in my mind.
This strikes me as the slow burner, but even so seems like a fair bit going on under the surface
I need to be in a very specific mood to like this, but if I am in that mood, I would absolutely love this. It’s the being sad and unsure, the rain falling out of the windows, the wondering what you’re doing it for, the fifth drink and the street lights reflecting the shadows, making them come alive
=The nostalgia of the now.
See, 2 people with shared music tastes yet very disparate at the same time
Very ponderous, this
I’d probably move to this when Sigur Ros doesn’t cut it.
Well you’re listening to the same song. Am I wrong?
Also the kind of song I’d mellow out to after being annoyed by life
Yeah, pensiveness is the emotion I’m linking to this song
Ha. I think I let my moods influence the music I need, you let the music influence your moods.
Pensive is a good description.
Fascinating
🤔
~ Virgo ~
We had some technical issues. Thought there were effects – but it wasn’t effects, it was a streaming issue. Oops.
So this is our second listen to this song!
And the other single off the new album!
Had time to double-check while you were techsupporting
I like it better without the garbled connection, haha.
Oh yeah, sounds a bit more robust now
Watching hands on the clock as if it had stopped.
Yeah, this record brings me back to 2012.
Sitting at my desk, staring at the wall, neglecting my studies.
Ah, 2012. Reminds me of seeing bands like Junius and Constants a bunch (not saying Emblems sound like either, but in that realm)
Most of my writing back then was around “The shadows on the walls play out the stories of our lives, underneath the stars of the small town that get drowned in big city lights”
And that entire mood, that is what this reminds me of. This song most of all. This record so far, it’s very much a throwback to very old feelings.
Definitely appreciated the song a bit more after tech probs
~ In Fear ~
In Fear sounds like it would be an emo band covering InFlames
Very much “start here, then build up” whereas most songs so far have “build up and this is where we’re going”
Right. Kinda reminds me of what I’d listen to whilst drifting between bars maybe to see a friend, maybe not on late autumn evenings
It’s not our usual band to review, but it seems it’s a sound we both get a lot of nostalgia out.
Liking the bounciness on this one
It’s almost danceable. Almost. I can see the audience nodding their heads a bit heavier and their arms slightly uncrossing.
We do out of a lot of things, granted our reflections are different than the usual emotional associations we draw
Danceable! Right. That was on the tip of my tongue
~ Out to Sea ~
Oh they’re continuing the dance party.
Arms are uncrossed now
Yep, driving open. I’m with it
Bodies are slightly moving.
subconsciousness lever not hatched yet
People who know the words are now singing along – instead of lyp syncing and muttering.
The type of song I’d randomly sing along to
Still only inside voice level, but activity is happening at this show I’m imagining
I’m now curious about the next song. It really feels like there’s a theme to the record I’m missing.
Where you’d be like “I thought you didn’t know the words” and I’d sheepishly shrug.
Like it was a buildup
Same!
You’re the real Shrug Dealer.
W for me
Definitely buildup part here
It’s the build bridge!
Whoops
To dance party central?
Let’s see
Jumped offside there!
No. To a sudden end of the song.
Nah, had a feeling in retrospect that the loud part of the song was within the first 2 or so mins
~ One Day, You Would See in Colour ~
Is this title ‘I’m too cool for American English’
And you’re too cool for MDH, bring me a beer as well if you’re getting those.
It’s a five minute track. You’ve got time.
Hahah. One of our dogs had one of your old fest koozies
We’re back to introversion. Does this genre have the same thing with closers that it’s either “in it together” or “we can do better!”
Let’s find out!
Music Dies Here and reviews, what do they know, do they know things. Let’s find out!
Hypothesis is a slightly open door with a narrow light shining from it
So the intro to every b-side psychological horror movie?
Or the fridge when something needs to be thrown out?
Or indie flick where socially awkward protagonist flies too close to sun and ponders their self-worth
Ah a flickering light because if they spell color with an u, they use candles during those moments.
Or the part they have this big aha moment
Following this buildup though
Ok!
That’s what this buildup is working towards. I guess it’s the “we can do better” closer!
Oh yeah, feeling this as the song that would be absolutely colossal in a live setting
Oh yeah, live with the right audience? This would absolutely be chilling
Also the type of band that would have a light show of sorts
Would need. Not sure if they’d have it. But they need a good light tech, moreso than a sound tech.
Trueeeee
I didn’t go into this with expectations, and am usually kind of hesistant straying from our usual genres, but I can genuinely recommend this to people. I dug it. Late night writers block
Or whatever project you need to finish and isn’t finishing itself, where you grab a bottle of whiskey and blankly stare at the screen. This is what you want during that specific mood!
Glass. Glass of whiskey. We’re adults, not alcoholics.
I do have a bit more of an affinity for this style so I may or may not be super discerning about it. Anyway, this was fine. Overall liked what I heard.
And hey, this album was within our (unofficial) MDH time limit of 30 minutes
Ha! Efficient!
adultoholica
Emblems: https://emblemsmusic.bandcamp.com/
Sell the Heart: https://selltheheartrecords.bandcamp.com/
