(Click the album art to listen to a full stream of the album)
Losing a frontman is the most difficult transitive event
that can occur with a band. Often times the stress of trying to pick a new
singer and adapt your sound to that new voice is too much to bear and the band
decides to call it quits instead of naming a replacement, like what happened
last year to Daytrader. Other times the
frontman position becomes a revolving door of different voices and
personalities, none of them gelling with the rest of the band members or living
up to the promise of the original singer (bands like Close Your Eyes have
suffered through this fate). Still other times, a new frontman takes the band
to new heights unimagined by the band with the original singer, resulting in a
newfound creative strength, as was the case when Adam Lazzara took over for
Antonio Longo in Taking Back Sunday.
The case of Tides of Man breaks the mold of the above three
scenarios entirely. When the band’s lead vocalist and lyricist Tilian Pearson
left, first for Dance Gavin Dance and later for a solo album as well, the
future of the band seemed uncertain. They posted that they were soliciting
auditions for a new vocalist through the band’s email account. They released a
demo that sounded like their previous album Dreamhouse with Tilian’s vocals
removed. But then they announced the piece of news that would change the course
of their band entirely: They would transition to a post-rock songwriting style and
release an album without a vocalist or lyrics. The news came as a surprise to
the band’s fanbase, with some praising the evolution while other were quick to
eulogize them. But, with all this said, did Tides of Man make the right
decision?
Young and Courageous, the
band’s third full-length album, takes many of its musical cues from post-rock
peers Russian Circles, Caspian, and This Will Destroy You. While this release
certainly doesn’t reinvent the wheel for post-rock, it is a well-written and moving
take on the style by a band who is clearly confident in their musical prowess.
They float between their former progressive rock time signature manipulation to
lilting guitar runs; from quick hi-hat rolls to sweeping crash-cymbal heavy
crescendos. And they do it all with the poise and attachment of a band that has
been writing together in this style for years.
The maturity at play here is evident in pretty much every aspect.
It’s pretty clear from just a few listens through Young and Courageous that
although they have done away with the vocals and much of the accompanying style
of the previous iteration of the band, the Tilian Pearson-era still has a
positive influence here. While young post-rock bands typically want to build
and build to finish the song “with a bang,” Tides of Man bring an almost
storyteller-like approach to the musical landscapes of their song. The songs
have a rising action, piquing the interest of the listener before building to a
climax. But instead of that climax accompanying the end of the song, there is
often a falling action which gives the songs a sense of closure. “We Were Only
Dreaming” is a perfect example of how this storytelling arc is at play. The
song builds with a crash cymbal beat straight out of Moving Mountains musical
playbook and a beautiful keyboard line overtop it all, before everything cuts
out at 4:14 into the song- everything except a simple finger-picked guitar line.
The flourish adds a gorgeous denouement to the track, and rounds out the story
that the music is telling.
In fact, the music contained within Young and Courageous is beautiful in a certain way that allows
listeners to attach their own experiences and emotions to the tracks contained
within. It is a characteristic that only certain pieces of music maintain. I often
found myself attach my own stories and connections to the tracks, an ability I
don’t think would’ve been possible with a vocal backing. I don’t think the
touching little piano run that accompanies the soundscapes of album highlight
would have been better with vocals. In fact, I love that the only vocals come
in the form of harmonies chanted during the epic closing track “Measure Your Breath.”
The vocals kick in as the album nears a close, as if to remind the listener that
a person’s voice is a musical instrument just like any other; no more or less
important, but valuable in its own right. It’s a subtle, but wonderful, message
to Tides of Man’s detractors.
And there will certainly be detractors- people who say Tides
of Man was better as a progressive rock band, or as a band with lyrics, or with
Tilian Pearson’s wonderful, high-pitched croon over the instrumentals
herein. I am not one of those detractors. Tides of Man has proven to me that
they are capable of delivering a wonderful musical product whether or not they
have the support of a frontman. When announcing that they would be releasing an
instrumental album, Tides of Man announced they would be releasing it “in the
meantime” while trying to find a lead singer. After hearing how captivating a
release Young and Courageous is, a
large part of me hopes that “in the meantime” becomes “full time” and Tides of
Man can go on to become one of my favorite post-rock bands. They have a chance
to take fill in the hole that has resided in my heart since Moving Mountains
went on hiatus. The only thing that is stopping them is the perception that
they can’t survive without a vocalist.
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