Review Summary: Catchy synth driven power-pop with a female keyboardist/vocalist? Well I never!
Zolof has been around since 2000, generally entertaining crowds in Philly and nearby New Jersey/Delaware. In that time they have produced 3 full length albums and 1 EP. Although not much has changed since Anthony Green sang lead back on the 2002 self titled album (he would leave shortly after to form saosin).
Schematics is the latest in Zolof's discography and while they seem to have lost some of the spunk out of their self proclaimed "spunk-rock" sound there aren't any drastic changes here from their second LP
Jalopy Go Far, released in 2003. I say this because, while this is still very much the same power pop band from 2000, things in general have been toned down a bit. Songs are no longer driven as much by synth or high pitched group chants. No, the music here is much more guitar and rythm driven than it has been in the past.
Lyrically as well the album is a little more on the... well.. you cant really call it a "serious" side but it is far more mature and, maybe even a little bitter at times than anything produced by these guys before. Dont get it misconstrued however, this is still no Brand New:
Give me a way out
I'm stuck here in this room
Where's my escape from certain social doom
People embrace idiosyncrasies that have made us strange
I did it
What did i do?
That's about as serious as it gets on this album, and it is definitely not a coincidence that here we find Zolof's biggest misstep, the song which those lyrics are taken from "I did it". This is a terrible song in almost every sense and really the only time we hear Rachel Minton's voice become annoying rather than cute and quirky.
Luckily the rest of the album manages to stay catchy, and songs like
Way Away and
Death or Radio will stay in your head for days with their incredibly catchy hooks driven by Rachel's high pitched wails over synth laden back drops.
Overall, there is some maturation in the bands sound over their previous albums but it all pretty much comes in the form of production and tighter song writing which isn't disappointing if you enjoyed
Jalopy Go Far.
