WATERMEDOWN - 'The Same View With A New Light' (Album Review)

I've been listening to WATERMEDOWN for a while and I've generally enjoyed Jonny Mays music. I thought his EP 'Somewhere Sleepless' was pretty good and I listened to it a lot. The singles leading up to the 'The Same View With A New Light' not only peaked my interest but made me think it was some of the best material I had heard from WATERMEDOWN. It really set-up some high expectations for 'The Same View With A New Light' so I was really interested to see if the full album would be as good as those early songs.

The visceral strained vocals of Mays add a depth to the emotional impact on the album. The instruments are well thought out and I enjoy the variety of moods, but his vocal performance and lyrics are the cornerstone of this album, for me. You almost instantly get those visceral vocals on the album's first song "For Everyone's Sake" which is a mostly somber, sparse guitar based song before it picks up into a full band at the end of the song. I really like the way the song starts and stops at the end on the guitar screeches that kind of merge into this alarm sound. It's a great first song for this album. The second song, "Locks And Blinds", is a bit more upbeat and has a great emo/punk vibe. It's one of the better songs on the album. I really like the vocal performance and guitar parts on this song, as well. The guitar work is really catchy. The slow moving "Fickle" features a nice vocal performance and the keys create an ambient sound that takes the front seat musically while the acoustic guitar lays slightly under it. It creates a nice, haunting sound.

The production on the album is spot on for this genre. It's a little rough to add that rock tinge and emotional power, but it isn't lo-fi or anything like that, it sounds pretty crisp and clear. For comparisons sake I think it would be fair to compare it, in production sound, to an album like The Hoteliers 'Home, Like Noplace Is There'. This is an album I was really looking forward to and it lived up to my expectations. I think this is a solid album that is really worth checking out. The vocal performance is excellent for the style, the songs are really well written, and I really like the pacing and song order a lot. Check it out!