International, The

Arks - The International
Punkish indie rock w/ some darkness. Think Les Savy Fav, but less dynamic. Many songs have a dark-misty-forest feel -- erie and spacey. Sometimes vocalist will sing-talk or growl the lyrics to complement this. A more unfortunate trend in the music is a tendency to play the same note and sing the same lyric over and over -- tempting you with hooks every once in a while. I don't mind the note so much as the lyrics. It isn't bad music, some may even find the teasing with hooks rewarding, but the repetitive lyrics easily ruined 1 and 3 for me, which are pretty good songs otherwise and just gets old by the end of the CD. My fav songs were the ones in which the lyrics took a little bit of a back seat to the instruments. Songs w/o vocals aren’t too bad either (14, 7).
Picks: 5, 9, 14

1 - Pretty much one guitar note, one lyric "This is the International"... the chorus guitar is very catchy, but song still gets repetitive even at 1:37
2 - Flip between dark and light. Light sounds like 1. Dark adds a deep, prominent bass, vocals get deeper. This "dark" side will be heard in many songs on the CD.
3 - Nice hook, solid rumbling middle... but repeats "Cars on Fire" over and over and over
4 - Same formula, less repetitive lyrics though. Not bad, but not a standout.
5 - Dark. Vocals take a back seat for the most part, sort of growling the lyrics.
6 - didn't notice... ain't bad... just ain't good either
7 - No vocals. Instrumentation really flows back and forth like a tide.
8 - That deep bass from 2 is going again.
9 - Intro has an alien feel. Louder, more distortion, unorthodox sounds then other songs. Repetition of song title "Silver" really works here.
10 - Not very much darkness here. More straight punky. Not bad.
11 - More of the same. Repetitive guitar. Sing-talk/growling vocals.
12 - The opening has a bit of a Rage against the Machine to it. Repetitive.
13 - A bit faster beat on this one. Another less dark, more punky song.
14 – No vocals. The repetition feels sort of triumphant in this song – like perseverance.
-Kyle Macomber