“More Than a Letter” evokes Dashboard Confessional, while “Growing Up Song” evokes Say Anything circa …Is a Real Boy, and all the songs are bangers with earworm hooks all around. Anxious's earlier material drew comparisons to emo's early days in the '80s and '90s, but Little Green House sees them evolve into the sounds of emo/indie circa the early-to-mid '00s when the bands were filling huge rooms and even small arenas in some places. I said earlier that the trajectory of Anxious mirrors emo as a genre’s. It’s a beautiful and haunting closer that veers away from the big sounds displayed on the other songs of this record while being no less infectious. “You When You’re Gone” is an understated ballad, driven by its guest vocalist and simple yet effective clean guitar melodies. In “Afternoon”, vocalist Grady Allen croons a catchy melody occasionally aided by Stella but closer “You When You’re Gone” inverts this ratio with Stella taking the lead vocal role and Grady singing backing harmonies. “Afternoon” and “You When You’re Gone” close out the record with some more guest vocals, this time courtesy of Stella Branstool (Hello Mary). “Let Me” is an album highlight particularly from what the guitars are doing because the riffs on this song are where the hooks are, building tension back and forth particularly between the bridge section with a guest backing vocal from Pat Flynn (Fiddlehead) and the final chorus. These two songs, with their big distorted riffs and shouted vocals, are the most closely aligned to the band’s earlier material. “Wayne” throws the first major curve ball on the record, a stripped down acoustic number anchored with a backing vocal melody that will drill its way into your skull.įrom here on to the B-side, “Speechless” and “Let Me” both explore slightly more aggressive territory, with the vocals riding that fine line between singing and shouting to great effect. “More Than a Letter,” which was originally released as an acoustic version on the New Shapes 7-inch, reappears here this time with electric guitar. “In April” and “Growing Up Song” both use a similar structure of ending with big sing-alongs that are sure to captivate a live audience. That’s gonna be a recurring theme here, these kids have nailed how to write a hook. But then of course, it hits us with a huge-sounding chorus. Opening track “Your One Way Street” starts with some melodic riffing that then gives way to harsher vocals more in line with the approach employed on the A-side of the Never Better 7-inch than with the primarily clean vocal style on the singles. “Call from You," “In April,” and “Growing Up Song” are fairly representative of the overall tone of the album but that doesn’t mean there aren’t a few curve balls. Little Green House actually employs a fairly diverse sonic palette that is not readily betrayed by its singles so far. And it works, because I am sure whatever the next show Anxious plays, the sing-alongs for “Growing Up Song” will be massive and deafening: In both cases, the intended effect is to capture the electricity of a live show with people yelling back the words at full volume. The kids in Anxious are scholars of Youth Crew hardcore and I will happily draw a parallel between the gang vocals of a Youth Crew record and the way group vocals are used here. There’s an anthemic arena-ready quality to almost every song on this record particularly with the use of heavily layered group vocals on singles such as “In April” and “Growing Up Song." The band’s sonic trajectory mirrors emo’s genre trajectory as a whole to some extent because Little Green House bears many of the hallmarks of the early '00s indie/emo acts that went big at the time. The trajectory of Anxious up until this point has been fascinating.įrom starting the band as teenagers playing slightly gruff Revolution Summer-inspired emo to moving into a space that drew them many comparisons to Title Fight and Farside to their forthcoming debut full-length, Little Green House.
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