The Before Photo – HERE NOT ALWAYS
The Before Photo are a garage-rock revival band from Seattle, WA. Taking influences from bands such as Taking Back Sunday, Brand New and Joyce Manner; The Before Photo do an admirable job at re-creating the energy of punk-rock revival bands of the 90’s/00’s, while barely cultivating a personality of their own.
The songs themselves are jams, though. Future of Love has commendable passion and solid lyrcisism. 6th Floor has some undeniably sweet riffs and an admirable amount of energy. Headful of Weather is appropriately emotional, and Black Market Friday is easy to sing along to amidst its powerful entourage of methodically well-paced instrumentals. Furthermore, the climatic outro of the song is truly well executed. Even the slower paced songs contain strong elements, such as the rough yet charming arrangements of Mask It. The album ends with the most generic fare of them all – Glitterless, but the preceeding tracks certainly make up for it with character and vigor. A note to the band, though; the closer can’t help but sound like a generic Joyce Manor song – here’s hoping The Before Photo don’t continue in that direction.
The album can’t help sound like the rest of the competition, though its thoroughly enjoyable. None of the riffs are innovative, nor is the overall aesthetic, but everything about the album pops – the song-writing is playful, the songs are concise and accessible, and the album is littered with praiseworthy jammy sections. While it may sound like a re-tread of everything that inspired it, it’s rather creative and fun to listen to. Here’s hoping The Before Photo can develop their own sound before their next release.
Above Average
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The Before Photo – HERE NOT ALWAYS
