Seven years removed from his initial diagnosis of Hodgkin’s disease, Liam Andrews, vocalist/bassist for the band My Disco, continues to overcome obstacles and move forward with his life. Interesting to say the least, the Australian indie rock band’s latest release, Little Joy, takes you on a simplistic yet strange ride through their nine lengthy tracks.
Aluminum guitars, snare drums and low-pitched vocals make the trio’s album easy to jam to. There are little words spoken on “Closer” as Andrews essentially just reiterates the song’s title over and over again. Granted there is a fairly basic melody on “Lil’ Joy,” this tune is one of their best.
Two tracks on the disc, “Young” and “Rivers,” are each over eight minutes long and, while they are pretty good, they seem to repeat the same one-note pulse for the duration. Vocals fade in and out as drummer Rohan Rebeiro steals most of the spotlight on “Turn.”
There is an awkward 10-second pause in the middle of “Sun Bear,” which makes you wonder if the CD broke before it starts up again. The band does a nice job of switching gears on the album, almost like it’s divided into three equal parts. The last few songs are deeper than the others, as Benjamin Andrews creates some great sounds on his guitar on both “A Turreted Berg” and “With Age.”
On the whole, the disc is fairly simple and not very complex, as most of the songs keep repeating the same beats. The music is easy to dance to but there is a noticeable lack of vocals throughout.
In A Word: Outlandish
