Matt Pond’s first official solo release The Lives Inside The Lines In Your Hands brings a lighthearted and soft-rock/alternative feel to the generally optimistic lyrics. The album is good overall, but the listener is left feeling unsatisfied with overly simple melodies and lackluster lyrics.
Artist vs Poet’s latest effort Keep Your Secrets is a light pop album that perhaps should have been released in early May, as it is ideal summertime music.
Incorporating new elements such as a string quartet, chilling and natural sound effects, and haunting vocals into their usual blend of post rock, Caspian have created an album that is always full in sound but somehow never overwhelmingly noisy.
The Classic Crime’s independently-released Phoenix embodies melodic rock intensity with its driving beats and epic build-ups, but also manages to tone down the energy at key points to flavor the album with softer emotion precisely when required.