Review Summary: Post-hardcore rockers A Lot Like Birds take an otherwise stagnating genre into new and exciting directions.
Sacramento has certainly left a remarkable impact on the music industry with volatile outfits such as Dance Gavin Dance and the six incredibly talented musicians that the band encompasses, and the heavy-weight-alternative-metal-champion Deftones. I have a feeling that not long from now, the sextet that is A Lot like Birds will easily be able to rank alongside those said bands, as their sophomore effort entitled Conversation Piece is one of the strongest additions to the post-hardcore library in quite some time.
The album features many, many flourishes of both traditional post-hardcore staples – including a dual-tiered vocal split between vocalists Kurt Travis and Cory Lockwood – as well as dynamic guitar licks that cancel out a definitive “rhythm and lead guitarist” and, surprisingly enough, a heavy emphasis on ambient, instrumental passages. Couple this with some incredibly strong lyrical content and you have an album that, in spite of a few hiccups, is an absolute treat from start to finish.
The album opens with the exhilarating rush that is “Orange Time Machines Care” that doles out screamed and clean vocals with aggressive guitar assaults at a tantalizing rate. The album then transitions over to “The Blowtorch is applied to the sugar” (yes, these are quite the song titles) which opens with some terrific, off-kilter ambiance before escalating to back-and-forth yelping between the appointed front-men before settling back into a calm and relaxed groove that quietly fades out of existence.
The vocal work found here and provided by former Dance Gavin Dance vocalist Kurt Travis and Cory Lockwood are terrific across the board, although the latter front man’s high-pitched screaming takes a while to get used to. Thankfully, after a few minutes of adjustment, Cory’s impressive blend of both screamed, clean and even spoken vocals become one of the immediate highlights – showcased beautifully on the raunchy, memorable “Vanity’s Fair”, a five-minute, unrelenting attack on the senses that effortlessly alternatives between being grand and subdued, a trick that remains omni-present throughout the album.
Other songs also bring out the best of the band’s arsenal – “Truly Random Code” opens with a mesmerizing drum pattern played in odd-time signature by the absolutely extraordinary drummer Joseph Arrington. His sticking and interplay between hi-hat and bass drum are incredible throughout and only occasionally does he utilize the otherwise predictable dual-pedal beats here and there.
Thankfully, Conversation Piece completely ignores all the tiring breakdowns that have given way to the hysterical “crab-core” meme and instead lets the listener take in some of the smaller touches. Trumpets and cellos reign supreme in songs such as “Properties of Friction” whereas infectious, guitar-picking patterns get to shine in “A Satire of a Satire is Tiring”. And that intro riff to “What Didn’t Kill Me Just Got Stronger”? Absolutely killer.
That being said, some of the song lengths do detract from the replay value. While “Tantrum’s” first half is all well and good, the last four minutes feel dry and drawn out and at that point, the instrumental-oriented ambiance has outstayed a bit of its welcome. Finally, “Think Dirty Out Loud” is arguably the weakest song of the album, featuring sporadic, inconsistent blends of screaming and singing and a confusing song structure that opens and ends all too spontaneously.
Enough credit can’t be given to the songwriting, though which remains terrific across all songs. The lyrics weave complex analogies with rather poetic remarks and subject matters:
”Aside from all the points turning thoughts into sickness,
all my stupid blind ambitions never fit inside your vision.
Maybe so, I don’t know.
Sure, I could’ve made it work,
been the necessary jerk like you wanted me to be.”
Many songs tell stories of deteriorating relationships and minds clouded by poor judgments and bankrupt morals. Fully understanding these lyrics was clearly not an intended goal for the band, and the songs come alive a lot more as a result.
In the end, Conversation Piece is a highly memorable and refreshing album that sidesteps all the tried-and-true clichés that have saturated the post-hardcore landscape for so long and with the band being signed to Equal Vision records and slated to release a third album come early next year, things are only looking bright for this talented group of aspiring musicians.
