Review: Standby Red 5 :: Yearning for Recovery

So I only discovered these guys a few weeks back, a band comprising of 5 from Arizona. As far as I’ve been able to tell, they only had a self released EP out prior to this album.

Let me start by making a couple of personal points.

• I like long tracks, 5 minutes are OK, 10+ is better, and songs that lead and wind over 15+ minutes even better. The track still needs to be good, after all size isn’t everything.
• I have an ingrain aversion to clapping. I don’t know why, but it reminds me of cheesy 80′s pop crap that I listened to on the radio before I actually had a musical taste.

So, my first listen to the CD wasn’t all too impressive: only 2 tracks hit the 5 minute mark, and clapping occurs in at least 2 songs. Sigh… That being said, if I had discarded all CDs that I didn’t “connect to” on the first listen, then my collection would be much smaller than it is.

Someone once said “The whole is more than the sum of its parts.” and he was a lot better with words than I am. Nevertheless, Standby Red 5 prove him right, as the album as a whole provides a better experience than the individual tracks in themselves.

Champion of the Deep is an introduction more than anything else, clocking in at just over 90 seconds with growing ambient sounds, a cool sample from Orthodoxy (Chesterton), and some smooth ringing guitar tones, nicely setting the scene for the rest of the CD.

Our Sinking Legacy which starts up with a tight melody and swelling riffs. The tempo shifts about half way through, into a more classic sounding post rock track, only to pick up again towards the end. I found the drumming very simplistic on this track (maybe because of the claps), and although a solid song, it felt like it was missing some polish.

The Great Contention of Sea and Sky, Our Journey By Water, He Had the Faith, Iron Vessels, Hold Loosely… Love Strongly are smooth, the first of which has some more “metal” riffs and chugging guitars thrown in, expanding into familiar post rock territory, and the last, being the CD closer, a more down-tempo piece which I found quite fitting.

Noble Tealock and A Riddle and Its Answer are probably the highlights of the CD, reminding me of early UpCDownC stuff. Nothing too innovative, but catchy melodies and well executed tracks.

Summary:
Over all a good debut album, and as noted earlier, none of these tracks stand out as individual tracks, however the album as a whole is solid, and I keep coming back to it regardless of the short tracks and clapping.