I may be telling my age, here, but I remember something that some of us call , “the good old days.” Back in the good old days, we didn’t have the internet, or any more than 13 channels of shite on the tv to choose from. We didn’t have any iPods or fancy gadgets to store 1,000’s of “records” on.
No, sir, we treasured music. We spent hard-earned money on it. We raided our friends’ collections to get inspiration, and every purchase at the record store was carefully considered. Often we bought things we had never even heard! Imagine what that was like… Even better, once in a while, we would come across something really Good!
Yeah, that’s a long build up, so let’s us get on down to the bone, here. I get a lot of submissions for review and some suck, some are pretty decent, and once in a while, I get something really Good!
Something Utopic sent me their latest, “Synthesis,” the other day. This is one of those “once in a while” records! One of my biggest gripes about modern music is the lyric. Way too often, the lyric is buried in the mix, or the singer’s enunciation is terrible. That’s not the case, here. Mike Motherwell has an energetic vocal style, but I could understand almost every word on the first listen, and he gets big points for that. He also has a talent for getting a lot of moods and attitudes across, very well. Whether a light, jocular line or something serious or tender, he is on pitch and in the pocket.
Guitars, drums and bass parts are crafted more than just banged out on this rocking album. Guitar tones range from creamy mellow to brash and bratty and on to heavy and pounding. Mark Pierce’s bass and Benn Cummings’ tight rhythm section carry this record along at an almost frantic pace – in a very good way. It’s not frantic like panicked, but it moves. It moves a lot!
All of the great tones, polished production and hipness would not amount to a hill of beans, if the songs themselves weren’t good. Once again, “Synthesis” passes muster. Love, anger, joy, angst, peace and turmoil all live in synthesis on “Synthesis”. Well thought verses, catchy hooks and harmonized choruses help bring the colorful lyrics to life. These are songs you can sing along too, but they’re still deep enough to make you shut up and feel, and isn’t that what music is supposed to do?
Ok, truth be told, Something Utopic, sent me the first four tracks of “Synthesis.” I liked them enough to download the whole thing in HiDef. The farther I get into this record, the more I like it. These cats have got it going on! For some reason, the old TV commercial just popped into my head… “Hot dogs, Baseball, Apple pie, and Chevrolet”. Ok, so now I really told my age, but that famous line sums up my feelings about this. Anyone who likes good old American rock, pop, metal, punk, psychedelic, radio quality, retro, totally off the wall indie music will dig Something Utopic.
If it were 1983, I’d be spinning the vinyl at home, and I’d have a copy from my custom Hi-Fi on CrO2 Maxell tape in the car. Enough said.
I strongly recommend checking these guys out. Here is a big stack of links where you can find them:
http://www.somethingutopic.com
http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/somethingutopic
http://www.reverbnation.com/somethingutopic
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Something-Utopic/103961159644354
http://somethingutopic.bandcamp.com/
