The album starts off as abstract as the album art. It takes a few minutes for a song to come into focus. Track one and two could be completely different bands. I could have done without the long overdone intro track and just jumped right into what The Raft does best which is indie pop with a hint of darkness. The male and female vocals work really well together. I hear a handful of the band’s influences on the second track “There’s No Going Back” like The Sundays, Beta Band and Stone Roses. Track three definitely has what I feel is the staple of Shore Dive Records, most of their bands have some element to it that sounds like My Bloody Valentine. That’s not a bad thing, MBV were always very artistic and mysterious with no regard for what was popular, they did things the way they wanted. If that included a minute or more of pure unadulterated noise then so be it. However The Raft definitely take the more pop-aspects of MBV and don’t over indulge in sonic slush.
On tracks like “Hold Back The World” there is something just so British about this band, like it’s easy to hear the influence of 30 years of Brit-Rock as their foundation. In a way it feels very 90’s inspired as well on some tracks with little to no influence from the past 20 years. “You’re An Animal” moves further into that 90’s feel and sounds like something inspired by The Charlatans or Teenage Fanclub mixed with the band’s other influences. I like that mid-way through the album “Skeletons” changes the vibe with an interesting beat that relies on djembe and acoustic guitar.
“Another Day” starts with a different vocal approach than the previous songs and feels much more like a Sundays or Ivy type track but with more modern influence. The album definitely takes chances with it’s twists and turns but never feels non-cohesive. Everything flows well and blends together but one note is with so many guest vocalists and vibe changes that this feels more like a compilation than an album at times. I suppose that’s ok in this day and age where people are just awful at having an attention span to give all their focus to one album. This album runs a little long and I implore all bands 35 minutes, that’s all we need. The extended intro and outro are nice touches but in the age of Spotify and just adding the hits to a playlist, I’m not sure they’ll see much attention. Overall though this is what I’ve come to expect from Shore Dive Records, a very solid release and any of my complaints are more because it’s early and I’m still drinking my coffee. It’s really a solid album.
- Sam Lowry