The album opens with “So Let Me In, So Let Me Go” and I almost wrote off the whole record as another moody rock album, but listening further, Seven Stops proves to be anything but generic. By the time you get to "Nyugalom," the centerpiece of the record, "Mercy Kill" has taken you on a jazzy romp with a twist at the half-way mark, and "Quiet Down" and "A Feeling" flesh out the band’s range - bright and punchy to rhapsodic and textured. "Nyugalom," the promised land of the record, opens feeling almost like math rock on the guitar but by the end sort of folds into another true rock piece, with wailing vocals, electric guitar, and all. "Pinhead" makes me laugh every time with its chaotic sound and the closer, "I Heard They Found You," brings us full circle, a good representative of the band’s sound.
These songs are ensembles, with each sonic element layered masterfully. Special recognition must go to Collin Humphrey’s atypical drumlines. Most striking about the record is how each song rises and falls. In perfect phrasing, each track can be followed like a winding path, felt like a wave crashing on the shore before receding with the tide. Their sound reminds me of New Order’s Power, Corruption & Lies album without the synths.
Recommended: Nyugalom, Quiet Down, Pinhead, I Heard They Found You
2019 // self-released