Album Review – TIGERS JAW – spin (Black Cement Records)
Review by Geoff Jenke
American Indie Rock band, Tigers Jaw has had an interesting life. They released their debut album, Belongs to the Dead in 2006 and followed it up with albums in 2008 and 2010. In 2013 an announcement was made that 3 of the members were leaving the band but Ben Walsh and Brianna Collins would continue as Tigers Jaw.
Then the 2014 album Charmer, recorded with the members that had left the band despite no longer being part of the band. Confused? Tigers Jaw is now a duo who plays live with touring musicians.
Now their latest album spin has arrived and this time no former members play on the album. Ben and Brianna co-front the band, trading vocals.
The album opens with vigorous jangly guitars and Ben Walsh’s lead vocal on Follows and smoothly transcends into power pop song Favorite.
Brianna Collins does lead vocal on the upbeat June which is one of the highlights of the album. A subdued Escape Plan begins with just guitar and vocals before drums join in building the song nicely. Blurry Vision is a nice lo-fi song in which Ben and Brianna exchange vocals on verses, shifting from one to the other effortlessly.
spin is a wonderful album that perhaps doesn’t quite reach the heights one was hoping for after listening to the first half. The pair has created some wonderful melodies and excellent harmonies. However the second half of the album becomes a bit more of the same. That said there are no bad tracks on the album, just a bit more adventure in the writing and playing is needed. While thoroughly enjoyable, perhaps next time they might make that indie-rock classic that we hope they have in them.
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