Violens - Amoral
- Written by Antonio Tzikas
To be handed an album from a band I have literally never even heard the name of before is a very rare occurrence and is quite exciting, especially when it says “New York art-rock trio” on the promo and on first listen recalls The Smiths circa ‘Strangeways Here We Come’ produced with a '90s shoegaze/dreampop sound featuring a lot of fuzz and tremolo arming. Although this seems to be exactly like a lot of albums released over the past year or so and places them snugly into the current mould for a guitar band, Violens do have some original style to them with a distinct ‘80s pop influence rather than the usual ‘80s indie one and the songs ‘The Dawn of Your Happiness is Rising’ and ‘Are You Still in the Illusion?’ could well be from the British psych scene of the late ‘60s - their titles especially so.
There are two types of song on this record - one is based on atmospheric and gloomy ‘80s pop and the other one the kind of psychedelia revived by MGMT and The Brian Jonestown Massacre. The problem is that they don’t cross over into each other to form a concise or trademark sound but instead stay separate. This isn’t a big problem and only effects the album in terms of being a full record, not the individual songs or quality of them.
It’s this mixture of influence that makes the album an interesting if not a little disappointing listen. The record as a whole doesn’t work as a complete piece and is more of a mixed bag of references and sounds with a few good tunes scattered here and there. Songs like ‘Full Collision’ and ‘Acid Reign’ are great single material but others just don’t seem to be as thought out as they should be.
You get the feeling that the record could be a lot better with a little more effort going into refining the songs and tracklisting. The title track ‘Amoral’ - an instrumental of just under two minutes in length - doesn’t need to feature where it does; it’s just not that kind of album and seems like an attempt at arty seriousness in the final part of an album filled with hook laden and trendy single material.
As a debut album this ticks most of the boxes to make it an acceptable attempt and features a few songs I could imagine becoming quite popular in its circles. The foundation is there for better things to come as the band grow, but as a record it’s never going to be anything more than a collection of OK songs.