The World Is A Beautiful Place And I Am No Longer Afraid To Die, Whenever, If Ever

The World Is A Beautiful Place And I Am No Longer Afraid To Die is a group from Connecticut, and their first album is a post-rock influenced version of early to middle 90s emo music.  This band specifically reminds me of Mineral and Sunny Day Real Estate with their vocal stylings--slightly off key vibrato.

While I'm thinking of Mineral, bands don't really use dynamics as much as they could, and Mineral was different in that regard. When I heard The World Is A Beautiful Place And I Am No Longer Afraid To Die, I noticed how their songs build--and not just from loud to louder.  I think the swells in their music give each song weight.  "Ultimate Steve" rises from start to finish, and by the end I got chills.  The opening track "Blank #9" uses a quiet cello and percussion to create ambient noise, building tension and making the lone guitar line that much more tense.

The World Is A Beautiful Place separates from Mineral and Sunny Day Real Estate (the two comparisons that are most relevant to me) with their instrumentation and their sense of humor.  The synthesizer is reminiscent of The Get Up Kids or early Motion City Soundtrack, and on the track "Fightboat" (dude, what is a fightboat anyways?) the synth riff layers over the guitar, giving it a quicker, triumphant feeling.  As for humor, all you need to look at is their song titles, "You Will Never Go to Space," "Picture of a Tree That Doesn't Look Okay," and (my personal favorite) "Ultimate Steve."

"Ultimate Steve" isn't a funny song at all when you consider the lyrics: "Eventually, the world’s gonna end. We should stop our grieving."  The title sets a tone though.  This band reminds us that you can be serious without taking yourself too seriously.  For that, I'd call this an 8/10.

That's album #1 from Soundsupp.ly, and so far I don't hate myself.  If you've heard this album, tell me what you thought in the comments.  Don't forget to tell me how I did too?  Was this a helpful review (probably not)?

Let me know in the comments what you think I should review next (though I do have something planned).

Soundsupply Drop 10

Soundsupp.ly is a site that collects 10 albums from various artists and releases them in "drops."  It costs 15 dollars for each drop, they're released every other month, and they're on sale for ten days. Occasionally there will be a bonus EP or album available if you fulfill some extra requirement (most recently you had to post on Twitter or Facebook) about Drop 10. I decided to sell my soul (I actually tweeted something for once) for the free EP so I ended up with ten albums and an EP. This is the first Drop I could "afford" (actually I ordered it without thinking because I'm bad with money) since they featured Matt Pryor's May Day.

But because I bought Drop 10, I am going to listen to and review every album in the collection--even though they aren't all brand new albums. Hopefully this makes me feel slightly better about my impulse buy. At the end, I'll decide whether my purchase, which was frivolous and irresponsible regardless, was "justified."  If it wasn't I'll launch into a downward spiral from buyer's remorse. Here's the list:

• Junior Astronomers, Dead Nostalgia
• Eric & Magill, Night Singers
• Their/They're/There, s/t
• The World Is A Beautiful Place And I Am No Longer Afraid To Die, Whenever, If Ever
• Eli Mardock, Everything Happens For The First Time
• Cowboy Indian Bear, Live Old, Die Young
• Now, Now, Neighbors: Deluxe
• Pity Sex, Feast Of Love
• Mister Loveless, Grow Up
• Brian Irving, Radiant Things
• La Guerre, The Three

Hopefully you'll hear good things about every one of these albums. Otherwise it looks like regret (followed by depression and self-loathing) and Dear You, Under The Boards and Nothing Feels Good on repeat for a week.  Have a nice day.