AWmusic

I rarely am personal on this blog when I think about it, reviews are generally mindless ramblings when listening to a review and I guess this isn’t any different. Siberian’s record With Me turned out to be so good, I listed it #4 on my top of 2007 list. Hardly of any importance since I had zero readers at the time…

I haven’t talked about Siberian…nor heard much news about them in the recent months. I read this on the weekend when navigating their myspace (like I usually do) the sad farewell note:

After a little over four years of playing music together, we’ve collectively decided to move on to other things. We’re all extremely grateful to everyone that’s supported us over the years. To all the bands we’ve played with, the folks that helped us make our records, and the fans that’ve come out to our shows and picked up our music, thank you. You’ve made everything worth it.

Love,
Siberian

I was never a friend of the band, or got to see them live… I just felt like they had all the talent in the talent in the world. I almost feel like I didn’t do enough as a fan… what if I wrote about them now when my traffic was 10 times the amount I had when I originally wrote about.. or what if I actually wrote a good review about them? I feel like I’ve progressed a whole lot since then and could do their album the justice it DESERVED.

For whatever reason or another, Siberian is no longer and that makes me rather sad. Sound Of The Sound was another blog that was saddened by the news. They knew about the break up early on… finding out late kind of sucks…

Here’s a new review of Siberian’s With Me:

There have been a few reviews of Siberian with comparisons to Radiohead. Usually comparisons to Radiohead are seemingly unfriendly and it barely does Siberian any justice to throw around Radiohead comparisons as great as they are. It doesn’t really give you the idea of just how good Siberian is.

Finn Parnell can be compared to Thom York in a sense because of their range in vocal harmonies and melodies but I prefer Parnell’s voice because it is a lot cleaner and much more natural/relaxed sounding.

Parnell’s vocals are definitely one of the strengths to Siberian, however their musical abilities should not be overlooked. Siberian uses a lot of subtle elements in addition to a space-rock style to accompany a very strong and structured sound. Siberian isn’t afraid to dabble with riffs and they really know how to start off a track. They also know how to progress a song slowly adding more and more and finishing off perfectly.

Maybe, their weakest section is the lyrics. They do have a lot of repeated lyrics which are structured like pop songs but they just add a ton elements that it becomes a non issue. Absolutely perfect singing and a ton of experimentation that makes With Me a great album to listen to. From random guitar muting, adding in extra riffs randomly, asymetric sections, to rocking intros…the question I had when I had finished listening to Siberian’s With Me…why aren’t they more popular?

That seemed to the prevailing thought around people who have heard of Siberian and it seemed things were looking up as they were touring parts of the country. Alas the ride has ended but I think some people are stilling missing out an absolutely wonderful record. Please check it out.. I mean it!

I’m not sure just writing them would do them justice and since they are broken up now… so I’ll be posting their whole album. It’s probably not kosher internet-wise but it’s probably the best way I can think of to promote a broken up band. I guess I’ll try to keep up with whatever side projects come about…

To download/stream the album click more.

Siberian – With Me (2007):
1. Belgian Beer and Catholic Girls
2. Paper Birds
3. Indoor Eyes
4. Wolf and Crane
5. Tiny Ships Brave Tiny Seas
6. Airship
7. Futuristic Kids
8. Orien
9. Georg Bendemann
10. Tightropes
11. Islands Forever

Tags: news