Here are some of the recent album reviews we’ve received for You Are You.
The Summer Pledge
You Are You
Woodbridge RecordsSongs range from quiet and introspective to driving and dressy — foggy feedback swirls in pensive meditations (“Who Are You?”) or all cylinders are firing, with vocals howled out with vigor (“Lost in the Business World”). The beautiful guitar wizardry and dreamy reverb sheen recall the experimentalism of post-rock, with a bit of atmospheric space rock. A strong debut; strong in the sense of well-constructed and well-presented, but also strong in its ability to disarm you like the punch of a dark roasted coffee with three shots of espresso…it’s a journey. — JEFF MILO
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Essential Albums: The Summer Pledge – You Are You
The Summer Pledge
You Are You
2009
Woodbridge Records
Buy This AlbumI have a confession to make: I hate writing music reviews. Obviously, it’s a love/hate relationship because I enjoy writing for this blog. I love getting responses to my posts or e-mails from record companies and bands thanking me for my kind words, but when it comes time to sit down and write a review I often struggle with what to say.
I often feel my reviews are too redundant and I reuse the same phrases over and over again. I am by no means a music expert or a master linguist; I know what I like, and I try to describe it in an enticing way so that the reader may be intrigued enough to check out whatever it is I’m raving about. Sometimes, however, I hate writing reviews because there simply is no way to describe the experience of listening to a CD.
There’s no way to convey the power, the emotionality, the depth, or even the technical aspects such as the production or mixing. Sometimes words just aren’t enough. Sometimes you just have to hear it for yourself.
I have struggled over what to write about You Are You, the debut album from Detroit’s The Summer Pledge, ever since I purchased the CD from their merch table at the Quadruple Album Release Prom on June 5th. How many different ways are there to tell someone that an album is good? How can I describe the layers of guitars, percussion, and the vibrant energy that radiates from the speakers while the disc is spinning in your player? How can I instill the same sense of awe I felt while watching them perform their masterpiece in its entirety that night to someone sitting at a computer screen, reading blocks of text? Is it enough to say that by the midway point of the performance’s second song, “Silver Choice”, I had already made up my mind to purchase the CD because what I was hearing was just that special?
I have come to the realization that I can’t describe it. I am incapable. As someone who has been writing as a hobby for the better part of his life, I have often been reminded of the inadequacy of words and how they fail to convey the point one hopes to make. It is not enough to say You Are You is nothing short of brilliant, a stroke of genius, or one of the best albums of the year. No matter how high the praise, how passionate the words, it still does not compare to the experience of listening to the record. That’s the type of thing you have to experience for yourself. No words can accurately describe the power behind this album. It would be like trying to describe the human soul. You Are You feels just as alive, as if it has a soul of its own.
Guitars twang, thrash, and roar, bass rumbles, and drums pound mecilessly while lead singer Dustin McLaughlin waxes poetically about being trapped in an office, wishing for an escape, and discovering yourself. Take the central message of the film Fight Club – “You’re not your job. You’re not how much money you have in the bank. You’re not the car you drive. You’re not the contents of your wallet. You’re not your fucking khakis.” – and turn it into a 40-minute indie rock concept album. That’s You Are You. All the frustration with living the boring cubicle life, and all the elation that comes with realizing and accepting what defines you as a human being. As someone who has spent the past five years sitting in a row of half-cubes, staring at a computer for eight hours, five days a week, You Are You is the musical summation of my own feelings towards my life. I’m an employee for eight hours, and only those eight hours. Once I punch out, I become a writer, a gamer, a movie buff, and a lover of music. I wear different clothes, and it could be said that I slip into a different skin as well. Those are the things that shape and define my personality – not the jobs I’ve held where I do as I’m told and adhere to a dress code.
You Are You is one of those albums that can and will be interpretted differently depending on who is listening to it. For me, listening to it is a revolutionary experience akin to the first time I heard Rage Against The Machine’s self-titled debut – an album that is so powerful, so raw, so moving, and so expressive that I connect with it on a deep, emotional level in a way that few albums have ever allowed me to do. It’s heavy and loud, but with an undercurrent of beautiful melodies and refreshingly honest, intelligently written lyrics. It switches between reverb-heavy guitars and ferocious distortion, sort of a mix of My Morning Jacket and Tool, but it sounds unique and original. It’s a concept album to be sure; songs blend together with few breaks in between and there are long instrumental stretches, but it’s elegantly put forth – never so spikey, obtuse, or otherwise weird that the message is lost. The album’s final (and title track) serves as an uplifting affirmation of the fact that you choose how you define yourself; you are an individual, not a faceless employee in a crowd.
The Summer Pledge are obviously dedicated to making quality music, and You Are You is the proof. This is an album with heart and soul; an album that truly matters. You simply have to hear it for yourself to understand.