The Tape

Weekly Album Review: Abe Vigoda- Reviver

Written by willshoob on Wednesday, 18 of February , 2009 at 9:21 pm

When I first put Reviver into my computer, I was expecting loud, tropical guitars and drowned out vocals. While the loud guitars were still there, the drowned out vocals were not. Lead singer Michael Vidal’s vocals have a more important role on this EP as opposed to previous albums. On previous albums like Kid City or 2008’s Skeleton, there was a bigger emphasis on the music, while the vocals were of a lesser concern. While this may have been a big difference on the EP, I’m not sure how much it translates to a live setting. I saw the band a couple of weeks ago at The Smell, and the vocals were almost completely drowned out by various noise, which makes me wonder if they’ll start to adjust all or some of their live show to hear the vocals a tad clearer.

The EP starts off with “Don’t Lie”, a poppy track that sounds just like a longer version of a Skeleton track. Another thing I noticed (especially on this track) is that bass player David Reichardt has more prominent role then he did on previous albums. I really like this track, especially when the vocals go into a chant of “Don’t Lie” and repeat that for quite a little while.

The next song, “House” was the first single and was released via RCRD LBL quite a while back. This song makes me appreciate all the layering that the band does. If you listen closely, almost everything is layered. Apart from the snare drum hits, almost everything is doubled. Behind the guitar riff is a wall of sound, just keeping things noisy. There is at least one harmony going against the vocal line, and at times it seems like there are at least three voices singing the same thing.

Enter, noise. How can noise this loud and obnoxious sound good? I don’t know, but it does. The vocals on this track are really cool, as it’s sort of a call and response type deal. This essentially continues for about a minute and a half, and then the next track, “Wild Heart” begins.

“Wild Heart” is probably my favorite song on the all too short 5 song EP. The song starts off, and reminds me a bit of an Explosions In The Sky song. With the beeps and the layered guitars, I could easily mistake this for an EITS song. But then the vocals kick in, and this song seems like it’s going to have a calm demeanor throughout. As the song progresses, the wall of guitar sounds come in and out, perfectly accenting a dramatic point in the song. Being a drummer, I typically don’t enjoy tracks without drums whatsoever, but this song is an exception. I feel any type of percussive instrument would ruin the overall “vibe” of the track.

Rounding out the EP is “The Reaper.” This song sort of serves as a reminder to me. It’s saying that although the previous song was a chilled out track, way different from any other Abe Vigoda material, we’re still a noise punk band. This song does exactly that. It sounds like most other tracks they’ve ever written, but it has an extra kick to it. The piercing guitar notes that sporadically pop up add a really nice, subtle kick to the song.

The EP maybe short, but it really is worth the buy. You can download “Wild Heart” below, and if you like what you hear, you can get Reviver through their Myspace.

Abe Vigoda- Wild Heart

Category: Miscellaneous

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