2 out of 5

Label: Arctic Rodeo Recordings

Produced by: Chris Common (engineered, mixed, mastered by)

With each bandmember having crossover credits in notable post-metal acts like Pelican and Dust Moth, and metal producer Chris Common on board, we might look past San Angelus’ budget bin-looking cover and stock band photography and hope for a lil’ hard-rocking nugget of music, nestled as a one-off between projects.

Curbing some of my already apparent snark, Soon We’ll All Be Ghosts is well-intentioned, with a conceptually solid Jawbox-y sound and some riffy moments, and is certainly skillfully played and captured, but even setting aside my pedigree expectations, it is of a special classification of tepid side projects: nothing feels defined enough to justify a new band, and we instead wind up with a glorified jam session.

Somewhere along the axis of the prettified hardcore of Far, Sunny Day yearning, and Jawbox’s tinny guitar antics, San Angelus noncommittally saunters onto the scene. Bookend tracks like One Hand On The Wheel and Waiting for Accidents to Happen clarify there’s a fun project here, if not earth-shaking then at least capable of turning around some grooves, but this is otherwise a kind of dad-rocky follow-on to all above-mentioned bands, with vocalist Kim Kinakin plaintively singing nondescript lyrics with lines like “have you ever taken a chance on forever” to tunes that don’t quite rock, and don’t really hit any highs.

…And I’m being a bit too snarky again, because these are all seasoned players, but I suppose that’s exactly the point: the album is essentially a first draft by folks who’ve learned enough to make that draft pretty convincing… but it’s still a draft. So even when we get those moments that do, essentially click – where the lyrics don’t matter as much, ’cause you’re feeling the emotion – the group decides to belabor the point of the tune by letting it drag on too long, then tossing in a half-hearted solo because that’s what’s “supposed” to happen. Common’s streamlined production I think sharpens things, but I can also see him as letting the group guide the session somewhat, and thus no one’s pushing one another out of a middleground.