When someone first thought up the name ‘emo’ for emotional rock, they also seemingly spelled its end as a style of music taken seriously by anyone old enough to drink (or vote… or drive…). The emotionalism descended into overwrought teen angst about your girl dumping you or your parents splitting up or your difficulty in choosing between your vampire boyfriend vs. your werewolf boyfriend. But the emotional call of the young can work, which New Idea Society occasionally hit square on the head on Somehow Disappearing.
After the written-while-recuperating-from-an-accident Quiet Prism EP (QRO review), Somehow is a return to the band’s more straightforward and less varied style, marrying the emotionalism of singer/guitarist/songwriter Mike Law’s voice to higher synth rock sounds. Somehow is clearly strongest when the band goes biggest, like on "Autumn You" (the only Quiet Prism piece on Somehow) or "Sing It Right", effective and evocative in the way that any big-name emo band would/should kill to be. Unfortunately, the rest of the record really can’t match those heights, with overwrought-ness a clear danger (see opener "All Alone" or middle piece "Halluminations"). The band’s focus on synths can go too far, marring otherwise fine tracks such as the brightening "Strange Language", darkening "Desolation Tongues", or restrained "If You Slip Under". Some other avenues, such as echo-epic "Thorns" or the slow "Halluminations" don’t make it, but there’s also the haunting closer "Come Outside" and bigger & better slowness to "Disappearing".
As you get older and (at least think you’re) more mature, emotionalism can seem like a luxury at best, childish at worst. But that emotional spark shouldn’t be snuffed out just for maturity’s sake, or because it can be shortened into the name of a type of music only teenagers take seriously. There’s something to be said for keeping that flame alive, and not Somehow Disappearing.
MP3 Stream: "Autumn You"
