When The Early November released their EP last year I was immediately impressed. Mixing a ballsy rock style with some sweet-ass melodies, the outlook for Ace Enders’ crew looked very bright indeed. Sadly a month later and the record was relegated to the racks of other mediocre cds that I own – ‘For All Of This’ had about as much staying power as a Conservative party leader. Despite some very good points, the record as a whole was boring and this negated Ace and his band and their obvious talents.
Fast forward a year and you have the appalling named ‘The Room’s Too Cold’, an album not crafted carefully enough to be emo and certainly not angular enough to be tagged in the post-hardcore bracket. Maybe I’m just going through a bitter and twisted phase of my life, but I’ll tag TEN ‘wuss-rock’; basically we have saccharine sweet lullaby-esque parts and distorted ballsy pop-rock songs in equal measure, but put together neither side actually forms anything Earth-shattering. And that’s ultimately TEN’s downfall because their obvious talents are plain to see – it’s just the majority of the songs are flat, uninspiring and disappointing.
Take opener ‘Ever So Sweet‘ for example. Admittedly this song is gorgeous in its majesty with strings and acoustic musings coming together to create a homely, warm feel, but it’s a weak opening to an album and would have been better served as a song making up the middle of the record. The sugary sweet melodies are cleverly produced, but the likes of ‘The Mountain Range In My Living Room’ are ultimately neither here nor there and there’s a sense that while TEN are looking to carve their own niche they really are attempting to be a jack of too many trades – and come away as a master of none.
It would be harsh to dismiss this record in its entirity though. The heavier tracks, such as the anthemic ‘Something That Produces Results’ and ‘Sesame Smeshame’ are gritty efforts that maintain all the good qualities TEN show throughout. The drum patterns are strong throughout, and the production is solid and thick without being overbearing, often a trait which ruins Drive Thru albums. The real highlight for me is the now infamous ‘Baby Blue’, complete with gang-vocal homage to the Get Up Kids. Ace is in his element here, a track which forges its own identity despite borrowing heavily from their Kansas peers. The rest pretty much fails to stand out, not in so much as this is a bad record, just in that it doesn’t hit you like great records should. The DVD extras are pretty cool mind you, and for a limited time you can purchase this album for less than a tenner, good value if you enjoyed the EP.
Comparisons have been made to the likes of Jimmy Eat World, but this is certainly no ‘Clarity’. It’s not even a ‘Static Prevails’. I suppose if you like that kind of music, albeit watered down, there’s probably room in your collection for The Early November. A school report would say ‘must try harder’ – the talent is clearly there but it’s certainly not applied with any vigour whatsoever. This could well end up sitting snugly in a cd rack gathering dust, just like it’s predecessor.
Paul
www.theearlynovember.com
Released on Drive Thru Records