7/10/13

"You would write it
Then rewrite it
Then erase it

But I heard you had something to say to me
A stronger spine is all you need
So pick up the guts from on the floor
Experienced advice to help you with the choice of words so poor

Well I call it retaliation by definition
You should've known by now
What this resentments all about
I've posted every kind of clue around this town
And everyone seems to see them but you"~Discretion and Depressing People
Into It. Over It., Proper

I've been on a huge Into It. Over It. kick lately - mostly because I crafted the closest-to-perfect Pandora station I've ever done in their name, with the likes of Look Mexico, The Wonder Years, The Weakerthans, Fireworks and a lot of sweet bands I've never heard of filling out the playlist.

If you've never heard "Proper," it's a fascinating, addicting, rabbit-hole of an album. The band overall is really original and authentic, and I think that makes them hard to classify but endlessly fun to listen to. It's not pop-punk, is it? and it's definitely not hardcore. Post-punk? No. Alt rock? Very Death Cab at times, but also has a lot in common with the progressive indie scene and seems rather well-known among pop-punk crowds.  I think we can just call it music and leave it at that.

I just love the variation, I love the feel. Guitar parts alternative between rich, slow electric parts with dreamy crescendos and more pop-punk chord-jamming, then there's mellow acoustic on a couple ballad tracks. Evan Weiss is an inventive lyricist; I love what he does with timing and his penchant for full sentences, and a noticable lack of rhyming that occasionally resolves itself in some poignant, pointed way. There's sometimes a spoken-word feel, like a journal being read aloud, and then you'll get some really obvious melody. And I love the in-line rhyming he so often uses, it flows really well. In songs like this, "Midnight: Carroll Street" you end the song with a bring-it-home, key-spruced climax powerful enough to sounds good loud but not aggressive enough to lose something heartfelt and warm. A winning album, for its intimacy and its quirks, in my book.



"Somewhere between caffeine and nicotine
You will find me unentertained and worn out
Pressed to the steps beside my house

It's somewhere between upset and sick it seems
To still find me the finest quality of pure anxiety
I'm searching for the solace to call you out,
To call you at all.

So somewhere between midnight and Carroll Street
I will find you a colder shoulder than I'm used to
Bending receivers just to hear the truth
I'm demanding some answers
I'm keeping up with double standards
I am between the words you're telling me
With a fine toothed comb
I'm drawing lines in hindsight
Until the stories start to line up right
These details bent and broke us down
The finest rivalry of our anxiety
Searching for the courage to hear you out
To hear you at all
Somewhere between single life and sympathy
You will find me
You will find me

You will find me