Word: bandness
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...initiative to be a truly impressive album, failing to incorporate new tonal or vocal elements from one song to the next. This musical complacency reveals itself as the album’s primary shortcoming. Rather than deviate from a formula which has provided some success in the past, the band instead choose to produce songs based primarily off of the same tried-and-true formula. There are slow and more upbeat songs on the album, but each type is constructed in largely the same fashion: a solid guitar intro accompanied by drums until a very cyclic melody is established, finished...
...band continues in a similar direction on “Permalight,” not only by incorporating studio sounds, but making them a fundamental part of the album. If a return to the lo-fi sounds of their early recordings seemed unlikely after “Asleep at Heaven’s Gate,” “Permalight” makes it seem almost impossible. Rogue Wave haven’t lost their penchant for crafting incredibly appealing hook-laden melodies, which ensure the memorable impression “Permalight” leaves...
...have is time / To bring back this bloodline of mine.” However, considering the fact that Rogue’s voice is sometimes inaudible over the band’s walls of sound, this weakness doesn’t seem to be a major concern for the band...
Rogue Wave fail to completely move away from their indie intimacy, yet can’t come to terms with embracing their newfound love of the studio, which is better used on the album’s first half. Instead, the band occasionally takes a middling arena-rock approach, weakening the songs by starving them of the sentiment of their earlier work, while trying to build upon the grandiose and bombastic statements of their third album...
This is not to say “Permalight” is a bad record, but it’s certainly an uneven one. The captivating hooks of the album’s first half showcase an engaging sound for the band, but the second half never reaches those heights. At this point in their career, it’s understandable that Rogue Wave is in transition, but they haven’t yet quite figured out how to effectively innovate their core sound...