Archive for the ‘The New Frontiers’ Category
Weekly Wrap- Up
I guess I plan to highlight all the week’s posts and some news around the blogosphere to add something different.
With a ton of new writers on board. I won’t get into any details as of yet but it’s more then a handful who will cover even more genres and music.
Reviews on Allan’s World of Music:
Forever In A Day – It’s So Well Rehearsed
The New Frontiers – Mending Review
The Hold Steady – Stay Positive Review
Shad – The Old Prince Review
Red Sparowes – Aphorisms EP Review
Sun Kil Moon – April Review
Special post:
Pineapple Express – Review and Playlist
Burial’s Identity Revealed
this. Concert Review
Around the blogosphere:
Kings of Leon have been a hot topic with their mp3 release of Sex On Fire. (haven’t listened personally)
The Faint has been a hot band on the blogosphere. Despite a below average score on P4k. I tried listening to their myspace, didn’t like it and moved on.
Bat For Lashes covered The Cure’s A Forest.
I was also shocked at 3:50AM when I heard a thud. Then the sky turned orange and off in the distance was a big ass explosion that looked like a bomb. Photo Junkie had pictures of it.
The New Frontiers – Mending Review
The New Frontiers are a band from Dallas, Texas and are signed to The Militia Group (the label was the most annoying and useless website, the last time I checked it out). Maybe The New Frontiers are popular with the younger crowd because their record “Mending” was praised by critics despite still not have quite as much as the hype around them.
Their sound is more on the Americana and slow moving side of things. Many people when they associate music with slow, they seem to think less talented and boring. I must say the New Frontiers make every slow second quite enjoyable. Something natural comes off this recording. As in, The New Frontiers just seem to stay within themselves.
Everything that’s done on this album is done brilliantly. The album itself takes on a dark tone, as one can probably infer from the title “Mending”. It starts off the with the title Black Lungs, and The Day You Fell Apart and so on. It’s a depressing style album that I guess goes with the territory of slow paced songs.
Other then my criticisms of not being as original and staying within themselves a tad, the New Frontiers are very talented and pull off an amazing album. The lyrics are top notch in this album and sometimes haunting. Mirrors is a strange and wonderful song. The vocal harmonies on the section where the lead singers “They will rob you blind, They will take your peace of mind And you’ll want to run away from here” seems strangely ironic to the rest of the song,
I still believe that the New Frontiers can do bigger and better things despite making a wonderful album that I strongly recommend. They don’t quite take any risks that I’d like most bands to take and it’s relatively safe. Vocals and lyrically it’s a top notch album and musically it’s solid. It’s atmospheric a lot of the time and the music really highlights the singings but still manages to have a great effect on the music despite being minimal most of the time.
It still beats out a lot of other aspects of soft rock that Coldplay and Keane are known for. The New Frontiers add a little more creativity then that. On a side note, the New Frontiers seem to use one line too often. They used too many inferences to being blind in each song. I’ve counted about 4 songs so far on the songs I’ve actually checked over. I’m willing to not let that bother me because it would be rude to discard a great album so easily. It’s subtle anyway and I’d doubt you’d notice.
Rating: 4.4 out of 5
MP3s for your soul:
Passing On by The New Frontiers
