Thursday, 8 January 2009

Review - Never Shout Never - The Yippee EP

Never Shout Never - The Yippee EP

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5 out of 10

LISTEN:
NeverShoutNever is the project of young Missouri native Christofer Drew who was reputedly #1 unsigned artist on MySpace. His debut release is the 'The Yippee EP'.
So it goes.

The first track, "Here Goes Nothing" is a Sum 41 affair albeit with a heap of crazed bleeps courtesy of some over zealous post production. The power rocked acoustic guitar mixed with the almost comical drum loops and synth lines make for something like Oingo Boingo sound clashed with the Postal Service, veering towards slightly Emo territory during the break.
"Big City Dreams" is a more gentle acoustic guitar number with a few twinkling synth lines, pleasant harmonies that give a quasi Beach Boys feel and ringing grand piano notes, however the overall effect is like a retarded and unplugged version of CSS, though admittedly not as lo-fi as artists such as Kid Carpet."Big City Dreams" in particular is the apparent epitome of Dawsonscreekcore (for those unfamiliar with this genre it refers exclusively to the music of Midwestern Emo, Punk and Power Pop groups whose songs would perfectly accompany mushy TV dramas which over flow with teen angst and over sized sweaters).
So goes it.

From here on out it is all quite samey, acoustic guitar and wavery vocals with some rather unfocused post production. The third track "Smelyalata" sounds nearly identical to "Big City Dreams", while the final track "Dare4distance" is of a similar ilk to the first; an acoustic number backed by electronic drum loops.

Not as seemingly sincere as the Postal Service yet not as camp as Chromeo 'The Yippee EP' exists in some weird place in between, like an American World War Two veteran who can slip through time, survived the bombing of Dresden to become an optometrist only to then be abducted by four dimensional aliens. That is, it never really knows where it is or where it should be and most importantly where it belongs. Instead it is simply floating through.
So it goes.

(This review was written in a style influenced by Kurt Vonnegut's 'Slaughterhouse-Five, or The Children’s Crusade: A Duty-Dance with Death'. I hope DSD, Christofer Drew of NeverShoutNever and the Vonnegut estate will accept my humblest apologies.)

Listen: www.myspace.com/nevershoutnever

Tracklist:
1. Here Goes Nothing
2. Big City Dreams
3. Smelyalata
4. Dare4distance

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