The guitars shimmer and sparkle, the bass thrives and flourishes, this is an edenic release. Such organic music is hard to come by, it certainly doesn’t grow up out of the ground. Music like this must come from somewhere and if Envy know that secret they’re certainly not sharing it anytime soon.
Such an inexplicably great release like this is never expected. That isn’t to say I thought Envy were going to release something bad—far from it—but I didn’t think it would be this good. We always want our favorite bands to release something we can be proud to stand behind and tout as a good album but does anyone ever really expect anything of such quality?
Very few bands maintain this sort of power this late in their career. This album took four years to finish and considering how awesome it is, it was totally worth the wait.
This is a modern day Homeric epic of hardcore, post-rock with a stunning amount of passion and energy in every song. This release is absurdly impetuous and vivacious. It’s like the first hunt of a newly matured tiger; it knows it’s an apex predator, but now it has to prove it. Envy has been amazing since All the Footprints You’ve Ever Left and the Fear Expecting Ahead, but this release is like their realization of how far their previously cemented style can go.
Recitation is a cinematic triumph over the ADHD music of today. This is the sort of album for people who are fed up with the lame, 8-bit trash that congests the radio today. This is music for those who wonder what ever happened to the art in being an artist. This is actually art. When it comes to sleeper hits of the year, look no further than Recitation.
In A Word: Utopian
