The Tanbark is Hot Lava and Hungover on a Tuesday are both adrenaline-fuelled, high-energy tracks that showcase the intense musicianship of the band extremely well. The aforementioned Ode to the Sun and Bug Eyes are both album highlights, though Jamais Vu, The Tanbark is Hot Lava, Hungover on a Tuesday and the title track are equally as great for different reasons. Having said that, there are also some genuinely amazing songs on offer as well. For example, Zebraskin and Spitshine often make me cringe with their over-poppified, irritating melodies and repetitive lyrics. Each song follows the same 'intro-verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-chorus-end' structure which can make the album seem repetitive after a while, it also results in some occasionally cheesy and annoying songs. It's also the album's only single, even though any and all of the songs on offer could easily have been singles as well, though this is as much a con as it is a pro.įor me, this is what holds Catch Without Arms back the most: there's little variation regarding song structure, which can make the album rather predictable. The following track, Bug Eyes, keeps up the same style and structure, with an uplifting chorus and catchy opening slide guitar riff. It's the perfect opening track: full of energy, and introduces the band's new sound.
The song drifts through a simple 'verse-chorus-verse' structure, with a quiet bridge and powerful ending. Once again Gavin's voice has undergone some changes, he now sounds more powerful and confident, capable of projecting his voice over the instruments with ease. It kicks off with Ode to the Sun, opening with a melodic guitar line that easily could've been ripped straight from a U2 song (in a good way), before the rest of the band comes crashing in while Gavin's vocals soar over the top. At the same time however, the extreme variation seen on El Cielo and Leitmotif was lost to a certain extent, with a lot of the songs on the album following the same structures and styles which can unfortunately hold the album back from achieving its true potential. They decided to take a risk by simplifying and 'commercialising' their sound the result was Catch Without Arms, an album full of euphoric guitar lines and vocal hooks that provides a great antithesis to the deep, emotionally draining nature of their previous albums. Creating an album to directly follow El Cielo was always going to be a difficult task for dredg.
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