Published April 30, 2012
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. With the resurgence of lo-fi surf Pop/Rock, it’s easy to see where Gang Related are coming from. The song writing here is solid, interesting and enjoyable at times (see ‘I Slay’ and ‘Mona’), but there is little in the way of a unique twist.
The exception is ‘Bouquet,’ a slender torch song, vocals hanging in the ether barely supported by brittle guitar strums, drums arriving closer to a funeral march than a rush to the beach, building until everything stops, leaving only the ether behind. It feels like their voice… their own twist on the sound. A whole album of songs like it would indeed be rather boring, but it seems like a starting point for developing their own identity.
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