Spectreview: Meanderthals – We Are Doing Our Best

-WITCH HAZE-

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“So many words were left unsaid
Now they must be unspoken”

Indie rock can be anything now. Technically anything can be anything now, with the genre lines near evaporated and the music industry working overtime on a new system, but indie rock is such a hodgepodge of divergent paths and sounds in rock music that mixing disparate styles of music has never been uncommon. The key to success is in the styles themselves. Emo and pop-punk are the products of bleeding hearts, and jazz fusion is literally all brain, so at what point do the two meet? Meanderthals try to answer that question on their latest album, We Are Doing Our Best, and not since Sambomaster’s rise in Japan has the question seem to have been answered so succinctly. Of course, Jordan Brawner isn’t screaming out peace and love like Takashi Yamaguchi, instead following in the footsteps of emotive rock singers like Ben Gibbard and John K. Samson, narrowing every syllable, puncturing every word. While his vocals occasionally get pulled under by the band in the mix, they’re classically indie and work well stylistically, keeping the music emotionally grounded.

And besides, the band is the real star here, pumping out a rollercoaster version of fusion that’s at once tight, focused and hot-blooded enough to give Brawner’s sentiments some extra heft. Less twisted than math-rock but not streamlined enough to be true pop-punk, there’s something distinctly vibrant about Meanderthals’ approach. Lead single “Happy New Year” is a shining example of this, taking a standard pop-punk vocal melody and buttressing it with playful riffs and ever-changing tempos so that it feels like a mini-epic. “Holly” does the self-loathing-heartbreak-boy trope justice with a fantastic vocal and cheeky melody, while closer “Sea Salt” has all its edges sanded off, a gleaming ocean that Beach Fossils’ ultra-dulcet surf-indie into the pot. “Broken” is arguably the album’s peak moment, slowing down and speeding back up on the back of an excellent lagged drum beat and a brilliant guitar progression that refuses to resolve until the track’s impassioned refrain, the closest the band gets to the Dismemberment Plan’s vibrant pummeling. There’s a few areas, like the verses on “Garbage,” where Brawner’s words lean a little too cliche’, and there could potentially  be room for a breather amid the band’s constant assault, but if this is indeed Meanderthals’ best, it’s way more than enough. We Are Doing Our Best is simply a fantastic, tuneful indie rock record, definitely one of the year’s best discoveries.

Highly recommended for leaving town at 90 mph.