The Detroit band first brought their grand, empowering approach out on their 2006 self-titled EP. With The Globe, the band has gotten more atmospheric, along with improving on their heartfelt cries, but find it hard to stay in any one place.
Opener “Out Into the Wild” starts The Globe off with a mixture of high atmosphere and high crash that leaves its mark, but is a little all over the map. It’s a trend that continues on throughout the record, especially with the mixed-up, scattered rhythms of middle numbers like “Ropes”, “Goddamn You!”, and “Aging Gracefully”. The band also often mixes up styles within a track, like the alt-folk-pop to electric guitar in “Black Hole”, catchy-to-guitar-grind “The Axiom”, and softer-into-big fuzz finish “Open Up Our Eyes”.
Among the elements, however, are some quality threads. In general, The Silent Years’ atmospherics are strong enough to stand on their own, like in the more upbeat “Climb On My Back”. The somewhat emo-ish plead of The Silent Years EP has grown into a more evocative outcry in such tracks as “The World’s Worst Birthday Gift” (reminiscent of another indie-rock outfit aging well out of EP adolescence, Ra Ra Riot – QRO spotlight on). And every now and then, the band throws down some strings-laden orchestral output, like with “On Our Way Home” and “The Sun Is Alive”, which plays well – but feels a little out-of-place on The Globe.
The Silent Years have certainly increased in confidence with their new record, getting them to try new things and work harder at the old things. With some more refinement, the world is theirs.
MP3 Stream: "Climb On My Back"
– Tom Balfour
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