Never Shout Never - Black Cat (Album Review)

I'll be honest. I am not the world's biggest Never Shout Never fan. In fact I've written some pretty negative reviews for the last two albums. I didn't publish them because I felt they were too ranty about what appears to me as talent wasted, awful songs, and a terrible attitude. I just didn't feel like totally trashing a band. It's not my style. Never Shout Never, to me, has always been a promising EP or two turned into just a total mess of things. I genuinely disliked pretty much everything about the project on face value and musical value. I started into Black Cat expecting pretty much nothing. In those reviews I never published I always noted that I'd continue to check out Never Shout Never just in case something he did came close to the prospective talent I once thought he had.

So after all these years I think Never Shout Never may have finally lived up to at least some of their initial hype. I think Black Cat is the best thing this band has ever done. It's slightly more mature, the music has more thought and is better than what I've thought 99% of their stuff has been to this point, and honestly it has some pretty good songs that get stuck in my head. Lyrically it's still weak, but I think overall the lyrics are a bit better than some of their previous stuff. In a surprising moment the album's song "New Years Day" reminds me of a mishmash of Oasis and more elegant sounding pop/rock. I found myself thinking that this is actually really good and jumped back to listen to the song again. The song might just be my favorite song the band has ever written. Other songs mix that pop/rock sound with something you'd hear from maybe a band like MGMT. The song "Awkward Conversations (Best Day)" is a good example. There are some points here and there when some electronics create a jumbled mess like on "Boom". This is one of my least favorite songs on the album. Some of the noises in the song were loud and grating as the song progressed. It has that experimental kind of MGMT feel to it, but I wasn't really feeling it. There are also a few points when the songwriting feels slightly generic and the band doesn't do anything to elevate it beyond feeling generic.

In some ways this album reminds me of Wavves King Of The Beach meets MGMT's Congratulations. Not really in songwriting quality necessarily for the entire album. I think it's more the vibe and slightly style of those albums and the statement the album makes which to me is that this band is finding their footing in a good way. It really is surprising that this album comes off as well as it does. It has a lot of charisma in it that I just haven't seen from the band or heard in their music maybe ever. I don't know if the ship has sailed for a lot of people with Never Shout Never or if there are still some goodwill left with listeners. If so, I'd recommend checking it out. If you're like me you might come out pretty surprised to find this is an overall enjoyable album. It's not great and there are still some pitfalls, but I think this band is moving in the right direction with this album.