Safe in Sound
"AmusiA" CD
self-released
Genre: rock, trip-hop, jazz
Montreal, Canada
Nov 6 2008 |
A pair of breasts covered with headphones adorns the cover of this
release from Montreal-based rock band Safe in Sound. They're
nice, hefty headphones - undoubtedly a higher-end model - so you get
the sense these folks might know a thing or two about music. Still,
this may be one of the very few contexts in
which a pair of Ipod earbuds
would have have been preferred.
All creepy and perverted jokes aside,
Safe in Sound plays relatively
accessible, trip-hop influenced rock music. At times they tread
dangerously close to Evanescence territory ("No One," "Our
Century's Reflex"), but the news isn't all bad. AmusiA is a
hard disc to get your head around, mostly because it is quite
eclectic. Much of the music is centred on lead singer Emilie
Lussier's competent voice. She almost
sounds like Sheryl Crow on jazzy "I Thought Dow Jones Was a
Country Singer" but it is "Fashionable Suicide" that sees her at her
most powerful. Sadly, the result comes off a
little too "alt rock" for my tastes.
The album's best portion is the tag team of "Mafia" and "Hidden
Years." The former is an intoxicating and whirly bit of jazz-pop,
while the latter is cinematic, majestic, and more than a little
sinister. Play it loud. Sadly, the entirety of AmusiA doesn't
live up to its highs. This is a moody and
cinematic record, and the songs that best exploit that atmospheric
essence are the better ones on here. But decent melodies are a
requirement, too, and several songs get stuck on Evanescence
calibre theatrics without establishing a convincing set of pop hooks
first. The result is an album that is competent,
but not as good as it could have been.
TALB's myspace
68%
youuuuuuuutube!:
safe in sound live,
safe in sound's cover of bjork's "hyperballad"
Matt Shimmer
[Vitals: 9 tracks, distributed by
the band,
released 2008] |
