Review
By: Patrick Dillon
Artist: Alt J (∆)
Album: This Is All Yours (2014)
Its not too rare to find an artist experimenting with their sound on the follow up to their breakthrough album, in fact it’s quite common. On their sophomore effort Alt J don’t offer any of the buzz worthy internet hits like “Breezeblocks” or “Tesselate” that made their debut: An Awesome Wave such a success. They do however serve up a more expansive and challenging set of songs that, while not quite as memorable or fresh as their previous record, still manages to refine their (dare i say) quirky sound, If only for about half of the album.
It’s actually quite hard not to compare This Is All Yours form their wacky debut, as my favorite song from the album is actually a sequel to a song off of An Awesome Wave. “Bloodflood Part II” is an excellent continuation of the original track, i love the faint horns on this track, as well as the building harmonies. In fact, these are aspects I like in a lot of these songs. Witch leads me to my biggest complaint: this album can become slightly tedious. Alt J follows a similar formula on almost all of the 13 tracks here (I’m not reviewing the “Hidden Tracks” because I think its stupid that they weren't just part of the track listing) There are some notable exceptions yes, but many of these tracks follow a similar formula of a soft opening, slow build, and layered climax. Admittedly a lot of these climaxes are pretty cool, but i think this album could benefit from some slight trimming.
When the band does stray from their typical formula the results can be spotty but occasionally pretty great. The song “Left Hand Free” is about as straightforward a rock song Alt J has ever written, but the poppy sound and bluesy riff are no less effective. It’s not the first short, fun, pop-rock track about masturbation, (Elvis Costello’s “Pump It Up” is a favorite) but it’s certainly one of the more memorable tunes from this thing. A statement that can’t be made of songs like the “Nara” song suite. These tracks are almost completely uninteresting from start to finish, with their slow moving synths and lack of any real direction . The fact that these tracks open and close the album (Technically “Intro” opens the album and I actually like that song but 2 “Nara” songs follow so…) really makes me lose interest early on. There’s just no real point to these songs, and for a 3 song suite they don’t exactly carry on any ideas throughout them. I’m disappointed that what could have been a cool album centerpiece for Alt J ended up being three of my least favorite tracks off this record.
Luckily some solid singles break up the monotony on the first half a bit, the aforementioned “Left Hand Free”, and the creepiest sex song i’ve heard this year: “Every Other Freckle”: One of the more signature Alt J sounding songs, complete with heavy synths, strange vocals and lyrics, and reverb-heavy guitar. While these songs might not have the hit power of the singles off their debut, they’re actually some of the strongest songs on the album. The strongest of witch being lead single “Hunger of the Pine”. While terribly ineffective for a single, the song itself really grows on you and the Miley Cyrus sample fits in better than you’d think. I love how it builds around the sample halfway into the track, and the instrumentation is very nice as well with some nice strings, and their typical heavy synths.
After the singles I think the album hits it’s groove, and actually becomes more concise with one solid track following another. “Warm Foothills”, like its title implies, feels warm and I love the group dynamic with the guest vocalists (featuring, among others, Conner Oberst) witch could have gone horribly but it works here. “Pusher” is a more bouncy acoustic track that I think would have made a nice closer, but its hard to be disappointed with it’s following track “Bloodflood Part II”. After an underwhelming first half, its good to see that Alt J had some good tunes under they’re belt as well. It’s a Shame the same consistency isn’t shown throughout the entire LP.
The “Nara” suite aside, Alt J has offered up an adequate follow up to An Awesome Wave, while simultaneously seeking a more cinematic, and challenging aspect to their sound. Its not perfect, and It starts out slow, but stick with it. This is All Yours offers up enough interesting sounds to be worth at least a listen. The songs build nicely, the harmonies are great, and the overall sense of rhythm is refreshing. Here hoping on the next album they’ll hit their sweet spot.
I Like These Tracks: “Hunger of the Pine”, “BloodFlood Part II”, “Left Hand Free”
I Didn’t Like These Tracks: “Nara”, “Choice Kingdom”, “Leaving Nara”
Score: 6/10
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