Review Summary: And The Wave Has Two Sides lacks vision... lethargic at worst and dreamy at best.
On An On's sophomore album,
And The Wave Has Two Sides, is pretty but unmemorable. It's unreasonably difficult to differentiate between the songs; they all sort of meld together mostly due to the record's lack of purpose. Some albums don't need an intelligible vision because they'll sound wonderful regardless of what they're saying. However, most albums need purpose, or at the very least a discernible focus, because, without one, the listener ends up with an open mouth, raised eyebrows, and a scrunched up face for several minutes after completing the album. Unfortunately,
And The Wave Has Two Sides evokes that exact reaction and it's a shame because there's feeling, quite a lot of it, poured into this album but there're no clues as to whom or what motivates it. Every emotion starts up with promise and then ends innocuously, dissipating and ultimately disappearing leaving the listener empty and confused.
Because the record isn't grounded, other flaws, that might've gone undetected, are more noticeable. The songs are too mellow, the lyrics too uninspired, and combined they're incapable of producing any kind of stimulation; no highs and no lows. Even with the album's undercurrent of love and loss of love, both emotions fail to substantiate or translate into meaning. Consequently, nearly every song falls flat; nothing is sickeningly depressing, dangerously angry, or obscenely passionate. Furthermore, along with safe lyrics and subdued instrumentals, the band follows a rigid formula for its songs; slow ethereal start, climax mid- to three-fourths way through, and abrupt fade away finish. Because almost all of the songs follow this format, the album blends in the worst possible way.
For all of its faults, the record exhibits smooth production and beautiful vocals making several songs enjoyable, even if forgettable. The first half of the album has several radio-friendly tracks with booming choruses like “Icon Love,” “Alright Alright,” and “I Can't Escape It.” Sadly, the second half loses all the mojo it acquired in the first half. The abominable “Synth Interlude” is thirty four seconds of pointless noise.
All in all, the album serves as pleasant, albeit listless, background music; lethargic at worst and dreamy at best. It's a mixed bag with a few hits and more than a few misses.
Recommended Tracks:
Drifting
Wait for the Kill
