4 of 5

Produced by: Jay Pellici

Label: 54’40 or Fight!

A lot of emo references seem to come up in relation to Eyes of Autumn, and while I get that – the delicate, youthful vocals; the fractured song structure – it’s not really a fair genre classification.  Hello – somehow the product of kids no older than 20 – is a masterwork of dichotomy that calls to mind the punky splatter of Wicked Farleys (especially the calm noise over chaos routine) or June of 44s angular, aggressive twist on pop.  Eyes of Autumn ain’t a sad band for rainy afternoons, though, admittedly, their more rambunctious forays belie interestingly open-ended lyrical imagery; they are thinkin’ man’s rock, which sounds wildly obnoxious until you hear it.  Heck, along with other such acts as 31Knots or Champion Kickboxer, which the much missed 54’40 or Fight! Label seemed to have a tiny majority on for a hot minute.  I guess that’s post-rock?  Or math-core?

Or whatever.

The magic is that acts like EoA make me not care about the classifications.  And from the way the opening key / bass / guitar / drum hammering drifts into some stop / start indie instrumentaling, then halts for some pretty pluckings and musings… I sense EoA didn’t care either, instead following their instincts to way best way to navigate through their tonally complex brew.  Producer Jay Pellici is a key component of this, bringing sparkling clarity to the instruments without losing a level of fuzz that’s important for Hello’s dream-like flow.  The way that As A Child hisses in and out is gorgeous and affecting, and the penultimate Warm Cheeks, Cold Hands emerges from a found-soundy haze in a wonderfully impactful surge.

But although this song in particular is a highlight, the middle of the album does lose its way a bit, with nothing quite as immediate as the spasming initial songs.  That makes the long lead-in on The Air Is Concrete and Hard to Breathe sort of unfortunately sequenced.

Regardless, the mish-mash approach of the album works in its favor, as you tend to hear it as an experience instead of singles; I wasn’t really cognizant of that mid-album drop off until I started drilling down for this review.

But alack and alas, like many a great band, EoA seemed to burn bright and disappear.  I’m currently unable to track them to other bands (the drummer might be in Deep Sea Diver, but even if so, it’s a totally different style), so Hello might be all we get.  SO GO GET IT, JERKO.