Proudentall - What's Happening Here (Review: Alex)

I'd heard of the word 'emo' in the context of the 1990s a while ago, and always meant to look into it. I was, therefore, pleased when Matt uploaded this album. Having listened to it a number of times, I have to contrast Roshan's review entirely.

I think this album is genuinely fantastic. True, the opening track has a slightly conspicuous name ('Kill Myself') and really offers very little as an album opener, but there is something I like about it. It's angry, but manages to do it without being excessively heavy. The second track, 'Instrumental Like a Compass', flowed really well from the previous song, almost like an extended outro. I really enjoyed it as an instrumental. There was a repeated guitar phrase which I thought was ridiculously catchy, though it is hard to describe in an instrumental song.

every song has a sound, simple structure. This is a fundamental feature I think. It's often the most simple of songs which catch my attention. However throughout the album I was pleased to hear subtle influences from other genres (notably the jazz theme in 'Live Drawing Dead Winter'). Similarly the violins in 'Untitled With Mike and Breeze' came as a very welcome suprise and complemented the rest of the music brilliantly.

This isn't to say there wasn't things I didn't like. Though I thought 'Live Drawing Dead Winter' was good in that it moved away from a set style, the two chord backing felt to me like it should be moving through sections, and was sticking in the same place. This is fine for a while, but seven and a half minutes later and I was getting a bit bored.

The final track 'Winter Dead Drawing Line' was odd, and at first I wasn't sure if i liked it. It gave off the same sort of demonic vibe as The Stranglers' 'Waltzinblack', but far more minimalistic. In the end I decided that this was a nice end to an oddly enjoyable album. I think I'll give this album 4/5.