Ending on two live acoustic tracks, it is definitely a record of mixed emotions that may just be a bit too back-and-forth to earn listeners’ love.
When you first pop in this record, you will probably do a double take – is this the same band that released Meet Me Halfway, At Least? You wouldn’t describe the difference as a softer sound, more like a completely different genre.
Not only that, but as the piece launches into ‘Boston Square’, you may think this is going to be one of those feel-good records, perfect for summer day drives. The combination of guitar and brief trumpet undertones (‘Everybody’s Dancing and I Want To Die’) certainly gives that illusion at first.
But the mood definitely gets more serious and sombre as you listen on.
The track ‘Speeding Car’ really hits the nail on the head in describing the record as whole. With its emotional lyrics and sombre feel to start, it then launches back into an upbeat mood. Yet, while the music changes, the lyrics stay with the emotional mood that was set earlier. Even the lyrics themselves are quite contradicting, as James Veck-Gliodi talks about having “a bad few weeks” and wanting things to get better, but then keeps backtracking to negativity in describing how things are always going downhill. And then there are some jolly trumpets mixed in? It creates a quite confusing and unbalanced track.
3/5 stars
BY AMY THEODORE
Old Souls is out now throughLiberator Music/BMG.
