4 out of 5

Label: Volcom

Producer: John Goodmanson

Despite a couple lead-in EPs, I started here.  I started here because the album cover and artwork were all alluring (done up in an unearthed, ancient text kinda look) and I read a review proclaiming overloaded guitar blasts that, combined with the aggressive album name and song titles (‘Ride Out Bitch’ and the like) convinced me this was worth checking out, despite it being on Volcom, which I sorta associated with shitty skate music (punk-lite and cool bro reggae and yes, I’m talking about Pepper).  The last selling point was John Goodmanson’s name, whom at that point I knew from Harvey Danger’s albums, the production on King James being one of my favorite skronks of melody and noise ever.

And it’s a great place to start.  Right away VAUX establish themselves as fuck-off kings with opening track ‘Set It To Blow,’ which sidesteps typical punk ‘fight for your right’ anthems by barreling straight through (sidestep, barreling through… hrmph…) into live fast, die young territory, which normally is just as dumb of an anthem, but the way lead singer Quentin Smith snarls it out, in that UNDERSTANDABLE shriek that surely burned his vocal cords, it’s a message that trembles your body into instant head-banging.  But that momentum is a requirement.  Quentin’s lyrics flirt with metaphor, but nothing brightly burning, and so when the songs slow and become more lyrical and less aggressive (which, on this outing isn’t often but it happens), it draws attention to the childish short-sightedness of some of the yelps as well as the ‘we all feel that way’ of being robots, and of seeing things people shouldn’t have to see, and we’re all so sad and unique.  That aside, though, his mastery over pushing his range up and down is a total plus – the talk-shouts, the straight up yelling, the crooning – it’s all used very well and feels practiced, not just forced to fit the music, and helps flex VAUX’s sound into something more dimensional than some bands you could reference with a typical punch – Snapcase, for example.

That guitar blast also ended up being totally legit, the riffs blaze out, and Goodmanson mixes the drums up to just the right level to punctuate, allowing keys to come in and harmonize when it fits the picture.  But, again, there’s a key to this sound working, and I think John helped, here, because most of that energy is coming from the guitars and the vocalist.  Not to suggest our drummer isn’t getting sweaty (and I think I’ve used a phrasing like this before, so not to suggest that I’m original in my criticisms), but the drums just don’t do much unexpected or beyond the requirements.  I know, I know, what do ya’ need except a beat, but all the brass work (cymbals?  can I talk about ’em like that?) just sounds mundane, tippy-tap, so I just imagine the dude sorta sitting back and doing his thing while the rest of the group lurches across the stage.  It makes the picture incomplete, and this, along with the sheepish smile I get from singing along with some of the words, prevent ‘Some Way’ from being perfect, BUT I have listened to this album countless, countless, countless (three countlesses = still countless) times, so non-perfection be damned if it makes you want to get up and slap your neighbor.

(As long as that neighbor is not me yaaayyy)