A.Armada – Anam Cara Review
A.Armada is a band out of Athens, Georgia that specializes in the genre post-rock. I don’t normally listen to post-rock despite have some liking towards it but I also have a fear about writing about the genre. I think it’s harder to write about the post-rock genre because of the lack of ability in my writing and limited musical background. I’ll try my hardest not to bullshit you.
I decided to check out A.Armada’s Anam Cara after just listening to one track (only one listed on their myspace) and while they were described as being shoegazers by their press outlet and themselves, I beg to differ. Their music like a lot of post-rock is “miminalist” and I don’t hear a lot of reverb or other guitar techniques in their tracks.
First, I’d like to go through observations before going all analytical, I always find song titles odd especially in post rock. They tend to have some sort of long title that isn’t explainable. In this case, “The Moon Shifts The Sea The Sea Shapes The Shore The Shore Shakes The Sand The Sand Sinks The Ship” is more then a mouthful. I think it would be hilarious if these lyrics were actually sung… HAH!
Anyway, Anam Cara contains five tracks each of which are 5 minutes long. It begins with The Dam Was Split But The City Was Saved, uncharacteristically starts off very strong for the first 40 seconds. I find that starting off strong just falls out of place concerning the rest of the album. It does use these power moments once in awhile to set up a pseudo-chorus. The guitar work is absolutely masterful though as while post-rock generally tends to mean diversion away from structured rock, A. Armada has a sense of the use of intros, outros, bridging and using a lot the guitar techniques every now and then to find that ultimate mix.
A key factor for liking instrumentals is simply progression (personally anyway). How does it start and how does it build? While the first track is a bit different in this regard, (it slows down perfectly), each song starts off slowly and builds without much of a rush. In this sense I get a relaxed calming feeling when listening to everything and I find that pretty enjoyable. It makes even more sense with the use of a title like “Into Days& Nights & Months & Years” as anything fast would be ironic.
If there was any slight I would give A.Armada would be the lack of creative use of their introductions.. a lot of them seem similar in the arrangements. Even if the end is ultimately different, it would be nice to see some different starting points.
While I do believe post-rock could be so much more with the use of lyrics and vocals, it’s hard to deny that A.Armada makes some great music, even when restricted to its own genre or style.
Rating: 4 out of 5
Hardly a review… I tried.
Into Days & Nights & Years & Months by A.Armada
Tags: album