Brooklyn natives Living Room are on the brink of releasing the follow up to their 2012 EP ‘Dream Journal’. The press release attached to this album started out with: “Maybe it’s a bit pretentious to compare Living Room’s music to an impressionist painting, but it isn’t a stretch. After all, their songs exhibit the same qualities that makes this artistic movement so mesmerizing—they’re busy, but precise; blurry, but coherent—and Moonchaser, the band’s first full-length, exhibits a band that seems to have mastered a modern musical interpretation of this visual style.” Now, if that doesn’t make you curious, we don’t know what will.
The comparison of Living Room‘s music to a painting is something we don’t encounter everyday; resulting in our sudden eagerness to give the record a spin. It sets the bar up quite high, but nothing the band can’t reach. Their brand of emo with a touch of post hardcore proves to be nothing but addictive, with the power to please those eardrums. Introduction track ‘American Levitation’ brings the record to a rather slow start, and it is with ‘Casual Science’ that things truly kick off. The band brings in a dose of pop punk with their fast, energetic verses; perfectly combined with the track’s laid back choruses. Scott Fitzpatrick sings to us: “..but I believe in energy,” and boy, do we believe you buddy.
Similarly, following track ‘The Physics of Intention’ takes a comparable route with the song beginning on a punchy beat before slicing the heart open as soon as it hits the bridge. It goes from Fitzpatrick‘s rather exasperated vocals into a whole new, sombre undertone. As soon as you begin to close your eyes to appreciate it, Living Room rip back into the original pace to end the track on a parallel high.
Though short ‘Out Of Love’ has the ability to display Living Room at a high point. Everything is stripped down, and through the baring of their souls to us, you can absolutely hear the desperation. Something about the melancholic guitars and crackling vocals broke our hearts while we fell in love with this song, this album and this band. Almost a contrast, ‘About Time’ portrays aggravation in the form of three or so minutes of the raw energy of Living Room. It’s pacey and one you can sing out loud to as if it’s your anthem. To end on a high note, riff-laden ‘Magnetic Service’ is here to seal the deal. In reverse to the earlier tracks, this one begins slow in attempt to build up to the climax that is to come.
If there’s one word overused in reviews, it’s probably “potential”, but for lack of a better word we can’t help but point out the amount of potential breathing through these songs. Living Room display high points after high points through their fresh sound, and the means of creating something truly special. Maybe they’re right and this album really is like a painting; made up of both fine and thick brush strokes from the various colours on the palette. Diverse, yet simple; it’s ten tracks that went by far too quickly.
