Recorded at the same time as their last album ‘Under the Sun’ the four songs here shouldn’t be thought as the tracks that didn’t make the cut, but rather those that didn’t feel quite ‘at home’ on that last groove-driven hard rock collection which was shot with Blues and a real Southern flavour. In all honesty they’re not that far removed from the sounds of ‘Sun’ but they stretch the cloth a little further.
‘The End’ that opens the EP for example has a really cool vibe, it’s a low-key way to start that allows the vocal to really soar and dominate before the guitars cascade in. To me it’s more of a show stopper than an opener! Full of hypnotic guitar and Soundgarden-like brooding it’s a track that you feel is almost worth the price of admission in itself.
‘Watch Me Drown’ starts just as languidly with a feeling of drift before the guitar crashes in and lays the already building emotion raw, like Grunge had been given birth in East Texas rather than Seattle.
‘Leave it Alone’ too has more than a touch of Cornell about it as it steps tenderly around James’ soulful vocal. It floats across the soundscape into some cool Southern flavoured slide guitar as it transverses the barren terrain leaving you stunned at the restrained power.
‘Signal’s Gone’ that closes sticks with the acoustic touch and drifts into view on the horizon before fading in and out. It’s a heartfelt exposition of loss that ends in static after another wonderful vocal.
If you love the band that put out ‘Under the Sun’ then you’ll love this – four quality songs that keep the momentum going and the appetites whetted for the next full length release. A little Grungy maybe, a little understated but packed with emotion and still with that Southern ticker beating hard just beneath the surface.
