It would have been hard to imagine Canadian band, Dearly Beloved majorly outdoing their last album Enduro at the time of its release, it one glorious slice of garage rock inspired sound built on instinctive and striking imagination, but they have done just that with its successor Admission. If there is such a thing as the perfect record, Dearly Beloved come so close with their new offering. Yet again the band recruits and manipulates the imagination with their sonic tapestries, embracing even greater adventure and variety whilst fully uncaging their rock ‘n’ roll instincts. If the last album was glorious, Admission is majestic; quite simply a primal and ingeniously conjured, addiction sparking roar.
As with its predecessor, the Toronto based band leapt upon and recorded fifth full-length Admission in quick time, using up fourteen days at Dave Grohl’s Studio 666. As ever centered around the vocal pairing of bassist Rob Higgins and Niva Chow, the quartet linked up with produced Daniel Rey (Ramones and Misfits) to record the album, using the famed, 70s era Neve 8028 analogue console that spawned Nirvana’s Nevermind. The result is a proposition which grips ears with vice like tempting while taking feet, hips, and rock ‘n’ roll instincts on a ride of their life.
RIP kicks things off, instantly chaining attention and an eager appetite because of previous successes with a grumbling yet vibrant bassline matched by senses rapping beats. A momentary breath uncages a torrent of hungry riffs and antagonistic rhythms, that in turn the prelude for a controlled yet ferocious rock roar. It is a fiery incitement perfectly contrasted rather than tempered by the warm inviting tones of Higgins and Chow, together a riveting lure in the creative storm. More virulent than the common cold, the track is pure dominance, irresistibly enslaving hips and feet as easily as ears and emotions.
The sensational start is more than matched by These Data, it too fleecing the passions with an opening lure of bass, a swinging groove woven coaxing infesting the psyche as a sonic shimmer sizzles around it. Beats dance with creative tenacity around that prime draw, Higgins again vocally captivating with Chow a similarly magnetic support as the track rumbles and grumbles. It is riveting stuff with guitars adding a great sour spicing to the mix as punk and grunge essences join the garage rock natured proposal.
I Tried To Leave brings a lighter poppier tone next though bass and drums still have that enjoyable crankiness as the pair explores a more Jane’s Addiction flavoured adventure. Every twist and turn in its intoxicating blaze brings fresh ingredients to devour, a psych rock invention only adding to a mouth-watering stomp before Who Wants to Know turns the album’s charge into a prowling, dark toned trespass. Vocally Higgins and Chow conjure a bewitching union whilst sonically the song sears the senses as rhythms dance on the debris with ridiculously infectious wantonness. A subsequent passage of relative calm enables a blues laced groan to emerge, its restrained air remaining as the track expands again until its volatility surges through ears as Chow’s harmonic lures beckon like a siren.
Through the kinetic punk ‘n’ roll of Strobe-Dosing and the abrasive funk of Currents, band and release use the listener like a puppeteer, the first as much pop natured as punk belligerent as it courses relentlessly like blood through veins into the psyche and passions. Its successor holds back its instinctive urge to career through ears, allowing its rhythmic heart and harmonic beauty to entice the senses like a raw blend of Shriekback and Ex Norwegian though as ever, a Dearly Beloved song is never slow in developing new detours and twists to enjoy.
The garage punk devilry of Blood In The Water provides the next major highlight of Admission, its dark heart and tantalising slow rhythmic prowl almost crawling over the senses as electronics atmospherically play and guitars toxically simmer. As vocals and harmonies radiate and yet another wicked bassline from Higgins grips, the track moves and burns like gothic lava.
Its startling presence is matched by that of Boxing Days straight after, the song aural seduction from its bewitching vocals and crabby bassline to its harmonic romancing and infectious tempestuousness. From a fascinating simmer it grows into a conflagrant eruption of sound and intensity impossible to evade not that you will wish to.
It is fair to say there are no weak moments within Admission; no times it comes close to loosening its masterful hold and creative success as proven once more by the closing creative outcries of When You Had The Choice and Future Shock. The former is a romping slice of rock ‘n’ roll with an unmistakable Foo Fighters like boisterousness and aggression in its punk heart while the latter skilfully blends calm and clamour in its own garage rock/punk driven trespass, each entwining a host of flavours in their spirit rousing traps.
It is very easy to keep heaping more praise upon Admission but the evidence is in the sound and time shared with it, though Dearly Beloved need little of either to convince and prove themselves one of the most exciting bands out there.
Admission is out now via Aporia Records across most online stores and @ https://dearlybeloved.bandcamp.com/album/admission-2
http://www.dearlybelovedmusic.com/ https://www.facebook.com/TheBeloveds/ https://twitter.com/thebeloveds
Pete RingMaster 31/01/2017
Copyright RingMaster: MyFreeCopyright
guitar. Its confident stroll continues unabated but still relaxes along the way for evocative shimmering surf rock twists and expressive stoner abrasing which are as unpredictable as they are engaging; a union constantly repeated across the whole album in the startlingly new characters and designs of songs, as next up Astor DuPont Payne. The track is sensational, from its initial tingling of guitar a riveting incitement which grows in presence and potency as acidic melodies entwine the senses, vocals breathe seduction with each syllable, and captivating grooves dance around thoughts like the flames on the opening credits of Tales of the Unexpected. The bass also is a tempting impossible to resist, its dark wiles a persistent shadow in an incredibly imaginative and creatively fascinating triumph. Psychedelic pop rock at its finest and most unique, the song is a new pinnacle in nothing but so far across the release.