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Engine Down
s/t
Lookout
"Dude bro, you gotta check out the new Engine Down when it comes out. Shit's gonna be rad", Chucky was telling me. He was the coolest kid in school and he knew all the cool bands that were coming up. Rumor had it he was even dating a girl in the 8th grade. "Remember it was me that recommended it to you," he said and shot me a thumbs up before pulling an awesome bunnyhop on his BMX and rolling away. Man, that kid is cool. So I asked my cousin Ryan about Engine Down, he's smart and runs this Bornbackwards thingie on the interweb. "Yeah, they're pretty good. They're kind of like Lovitt's flagship band," he said. "Their last album Demure was one of my favorites from 2002."
If I wanted to be as cool as Chucky and get all the hot middle school girls, I knew I'd have to track down Engine Down. And get a sweet chrome BMX.
When I first put their self-titled fourth album on I was immediately impressed. "Rogue" kicked total ass. The distorted bass rolled and roared underneath short bursts of screeching feedback and heavy but agile drumming. The brooding sound was contrasted by Keeley Davis's smooth vocals which remained calm and collected beneath the driving rhythm. Before I knew what was happening I was bouncing around the room and using words like 'gnarly', just like Chucky does. I could feel myself getting cooler.
But from that high point the record gradually got worse and worse. The first four songs were good of course, though each was progressively weaker than the last. But by the time I got to the screaming of "In Turn" and "Well Read" my revolting sister popped her head in the door and asked if I was listening to the new Thrice. "No way, never! You smell like poop, get out of my room!" I screamed and slammed the door so I wouldn't have to look at her Taking Back Sunday shirt a second longer. I wanted to barf on her, but I had to admit, it really did sound like the kind of crappy generic screamo she listened to.
So I had to ask my cousin Ryan what was going on. How could he recommend something that sounded like the new Thursday to me? "Well," he said, "Engine Down left Lovitt, they're on Lookout now and I think this is supposed to be their 'breakthrough' album. The guy who produced it, Brian McTernan, is also the guy who did the Thrice and Movielife albums, so you were right on that count. The drums sound too heavy and the guitars too generically crunchy in that awful radio-friendly 'alt-rock' kind of way, especially on that song '101'. But McTernan also did Frodus' final album and the last Impossibles EP, and those were both great, so the sound of the album can't be totally his fault."
Ryan was right, it really sounded like the band was trying to appeal to people like my sister and break through to the Drive Thru / Victory crowd. It still sounded like the old Engine Down though, and the album was obviously way better than anything that has even been put out by either of those labels ever. "In Turn", despite the cheap screaming at the end, proves what original song-writers they can be. Starting with ambient tones, the song proceeds to light arpeggioed guitars and some cello before it totally busts open halfway through. The drums take over and a never-ending tom roll supports the electric guitars.
But Engine Down is also the sound of a band trapped under bad overproduction and the weight of market appeal instead of following their own instincts. Despite the 'super-duper-rocking production', nothing on the album even hits as hard as "Pantomime" off Demure. "Cover", despite being one the better songs on the album, uses some Rancid-approved gang vocals for the chorus, something the band never had to descend to before to write a catchy chorus.
After ditching the screamo sound of their first album to create their own unique and superior sound, Engine Down have brought the screaming back, at least on two songs. But at this point, a mere four years after their debut, the genre is creatively bankrupt in the worst way. Even an 11-year-old can tell you that.
I guess Engine Down is hoping to appeal to Thrice fans like my pimple-faced sister, which should be a huge turn-off to old fans like Chucky or Ryan. Although if people like my sister listen to Engine Down it'll be a gigantic, immeasurable improvement over anything else they've ever listened to in their entire lives. Trust me. So the band's turn toward more 'popular' underground sounds isn't a total loss. And maybe it'll lead their new fans to the band's older, better albums, or maybe even to some other really great bands. But not Thrice. As Chucky would say, "They really eat anus boogers". Now I just gotta get my mom to hook me up with a sweet chrome BMX for Christmas. That'd be totally gnarly!
-Timmy, Age 11
9/23/04
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Engine Down
Demure
Lovitt Records |
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"Jesus, these guys are fucking good," I mumbled over my shoulder to Amber somewhere in the middle of my first listen through Engine Down's latest, Demure. She looked at me, bit her lower lip and nodded. Few records manage to really grab hold of my attention the first I listen to them, but Demure has and continues to do so with each listen. It's angst, tension and confusion trapped inside a spinning plastic disk. The band dropped the screaming with their last album in an attempt to remove the 'guides of dynamic contrast.' Basically, they want you to figure the music out for yourself without screaming telling you where the 'emotional' parts are. It works pretty well and most of the album's atmosphere is rooted in a kind of Radiohead-feeling anxious tension (though they did without all the Radiohead gizmography). The songs average around at around 5 minutes a piece but most of them actually feel far too short. The guitars are repetitive, but are very carefully calculated. They never become boring or annoying, instead the riffs repeat themselves to the point of almost becoming a rhythmic thing, but as soon as a riff begins to wear out itself out, it changes. The focal point of the songs is Keeley Davis' voice. Although his vocal patterns stay pretty consistent and similar throughout the songs, he somehow manages to invoke a variety of different feelings from the listener. The songs are really held together by the drumming of the worst-named person in rock, Cornbread Compton (who must have been teased incessantly as a child). "Songbird" kicks the album off slow and steady, consisting mostly of vocals (as per the song title) and drums. "Pantomime" is most obvious rocker on the album. Although I feel pretty bad neglecting any of these songs, I often put "Pantomime" on repeat and rock out in my car when I come to stoplights. Yeah it's pretty embarrassing to look over and see like six people watching me. I usually slink down in my seat and blush, but as soon as they stop looking, I start rocking out again. The song is just so damn good I can't help embarrassing myself by shaking my ass and bobbing my head in the middle of rush hour. The only song that feels out of place is "Closed Call" which ditches the guitars for a piano duet with Keeley's sister Maura and sounds spot-on like a Denali song (of which both Davis' are a part), sad and desperate instead of anxious and tense. It would have worked as an album closer, but it's awkwardly shoved between two guitar-based songs and interrupts the atmosphere Demure builds, failing to ever build up the way the other songs do.
Yesterday, I was listening to Engine Down on my headphones for about the millionth time and I thought to myself, "God damn, this is good."
-exadore
7/16/02
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