Hard-touring, soft-spoken quartet The Details have been slogging away at the Canadian music scene for most of the last five years. The Winnipeg, Manitoba product first sprang onto radars with debut full length, 2007’s Draw A Distance, Draw A Border, and they have since appeared at prestigious venues and festivals all across the great white north, and on primetime television in the States. Their moody indie-rock has evolved through years of tireless writing, touring, and self-promotion, and that continued evolution produces an admirable, albeit somewhat unfinished effort in 2010’s The Original Mark EP.
The curtains to this latest release are thrust open on the splendid title track, where singer Jon Plett’s smooth, Thom Yorke-esque voice swoons around faithful guitar riffs and elegant strings. A touch of piano against the perfectly timed bass notes and percussion only better accents the romantic number, but as it fades into another, something about The Original Mark becomes inevitably clear – the album lacks a certain sense of flow. While the quality of each song is never in question, they become more of a collection of catchy singles than any sort of combined effort.
While that first number exemplifies a softer acoustic ballad, "Surface Breaks" drives into a pumped up, electric guitar fuelled world before gearing down yet again on "Uniform". "Strings and Ribbons" meanwhile, sees The Details play into the alt country twang of fellow patriots NQ Arbuckle and United Steelworkers of Montreal. Even that style can’t stay though, and the album fades into circular construction on closer "Floor Plans" – a song that sees the return of graceful piano and strings, as well as an overall softer sound.
As its last few piano notes grow fainter in your headphones, one is left with some interesting and varied feelings towards The Original Mark EP. While each song is crafted to a beautiful precision, the record is not so much a record as a medley of very diverse tracks. Whatever you feelings on the state of its overall flow, The Original Mark can at very least be said to hit the mark in terms of quality and a positive future outlook.
