They say never judge a book by its cover. They don’t, however, impart the same sentence on an album cover, and maybe ‘they,’ in their infinite wisdom, left album covers up for scrutiny for a reason.
Probably not but, from judging this EP by its cover, I think I was expecting to like this album. Especially when coupled with the fact that it’s called Cereal, cereal being one of the better staples of breakfast, which happens to be one of my favourite activities of all time. So far so irrelevant.
From the get go this record was just what I was hoping it would be; melody and musicality buried under the pile of rubble it brought down upon itself in sadistic self deprecation. It’s ballsy and intricate but it has depth that moves it away from being music written for a genre or from any two dimensional inspiration, and that variation carries it for 30 minutes where otherwise it might have gotten a little tiresome.
The band sounds tight and enthusiastic; everything sits well with everything else, and they sound like they understand each other musically. It’s also lyrically adventurous, something that’s dangerous, as it can easily turn a good song or album and make it ridiculous. It proves that there is a strong element of honesty that runs through the entirety of this record.
While it may not be groundbreaking, or necessarily a cut above others of the same ilk as these guys, it’s still a hell of a lot of fun, and has the polished air of a band that are in that fantastic, hard-to-hold-on-to place where they have been together long enough to really be a band, while still having the enthusiasm of a young bunch of guys enjoying what they’re doing and the music they’re making.