3 out of 5

Label: ?  Digital download through bandcamp

Producer: John Congleton

No doubt about it, this is some emo stuff right here.  The vocals are pure emo croon, the music might be de-punked a little, but it has the searching and yearning guitar sound.  The selection of songs, 5 or 6 minute ditties, won’t surprise you much, nor will the lyrical content, stretching over that spacey palate that emo tends to hang around.  But: Shapes Stars Make also, with the assistance of producer Congleton, make a fuck of a lot of guitar noise when they decide to.  When the distortion hits on about half the tracks on this EP and the songs just explode, it is a great sound.  The drums are pounding, the guitar is ringing out, and this is what emo ideally sounds like.  I know that the quiet / loud dynamic would get repetitive if done every track, and then I’d criticize that, but still, the cleaner songs just don’t cut it for me.  The emo style works for pretty boys, and to some of us it just doesn’t appeal.  But what I will credit Shapes Stars Make with doing, with I can’t say for the majority of emo rock out there, is that there’s enough meat to this recording to get me back to listen to it again, and to explore some of their other works.  If they can ditch some of the whine for their more shushed moments, there’s a great space rock album looming on the horizon.