Evaline - Woven Material Review
Posted by Hunter on Tue, 19 Jul 2011.
Californian alt-rock band Evaline have finally pulled together their debut album, Woven Material, after having “existed in one form or another since 2003”. It’s been a long time coming but the wait has been well worth it in spite of something of a false start with record label Maverick and a self imposed re-evaluation of their music style.
Woven Material opens with “Beneath The Fire” a lovely full sounding anthemic track which had me fooled for a second thinking of a Therapy riff, and is the perfect introduction to something of an eclectic album. After a great opening 7 minutes (or thereabouts) the second track, “There There” arrives, which is a little short for my liking, but still punchy enough to remain memorable. The third track however is my only actual cause for any real complaint. Perry’s vocals are excellent as a whole, but on “Ascend” there are times when he just seems to be a bit forced and ends up sounding like “nyer nyer”, and he really doesn’t need to push it that hard. It’s purely a personal opinion on my part and I do think he’s naturally talented with a tremendous voice, but for a couple of seconds it grated a bit. “Picking It Up” and “Equally” reminded me of a gritty UK band called Happy Life, and quickly buried any negative thoughts I had during “Ascend”
There are times the sound and vocals hint at U2, which is quite an achievement, but Evaline also remind me somewhat of Radiohead, Coldplay (minus the sadface), James, and at times maybe even Toploader. It’s a tough genre of music they’re breaking into, and could easily fade into the mass of average bands out there, but thankfully there’s enough about them to ensure that they stay head and shoulders above their contemporaries. The tracks for the most part are memorable, and will more then likely have you humming them long after you stop playing their CD. All in all, a great debut from a band who have everything laid out in front of them to do very well.
To find out more about Evaline you can find their Tumblr account here: http://evaline.tumblr.com/band