S.C.U.M - Again Into Eyes Album Review

Initial thoughts: a cross between Joy Division and She Wants Revenge (basically, Ian Curtis’ baritone with She Wants Revenge’s overall sound - not exactly a compliment)

    Again Into Eyes’ opening track, “Faith Unfolds,”  doesn’t really start the album off with a bang. Immediately, the song does not appear to be anything special, though by the end of the track the hook was definitely in my head, though I’m not exactly sure to what I was singing along. Perhaps it’s just my Canadian ears, but the thick British accent of singer Thomas Cohen distorted the words, matching the overall fuzziness of the musical accompaniment, and I found myself not so much singing along with the lyrical hook as I was making noises that seemed to match the rhythm. If I thought this track was hard to get a hold on, then I shouldn’t have even tried to touch the next one, “Days Untrue”. The breathy vocals added little to my listening experience, as I could neither pick out what exactly was being said or distinguish anything too creative about the vocal work itself (if you want British baritone over distortion done right, put on some Joy Division). However, there did seem to be more going on musically and I can imagine seeing this band live in some sort of blissed-out state wouldn’t be altogether unpleasant.  Listening to it in my living room, however, I was unmoved.
    If you don’t may too much attention to the vocals, which strike me as overdramatic and a bit pretentious, then the instrumentation definitely holds potential. It’s sometimes hard to tell what exactly is going on in the background, and the album jacket doesn’t help fill to in the blanks by crediting one band member, Bradley Baker, with the ambiguous role of “machines, press”, but the instrumentation is, nevertheless, somewhat intriguing. Naming themselves after a viciously misandrist screed by feminist writer Valerie Solanas doesn’t do much to distance S.C.U.M from this pretentious image, especially when they have been openly resentful of this insinuation from the press. Cohen has even spoken out against this label, stating that the prime reason they cannot be called pretentious is that they don’t make music about social issues. If not to make a social commentary, why pick such an inflammatory piece of writing as the inspiration for your band name (which, in it’s current lineup, is all male)?
    As the album goes on, the band introduces some new instruments and sounds, finally making distinctions between individual tracks. Slowing it down on “Paris” offers a nice, clear break after the grandiose distortion of the first two-thirds of Again Into Eyes. As you may have surmised by this point in the review, this is not going to be my new favourite album, nor will I be rushing to see this band live. However, I do appreciate their willingness to play around with sounds and in this creativity lies definite potential. That being said, if they want to do anything to shun the label of being pretentious “Little Horrors” (so-called because they feature on bass Huw Webb, younger brother of Rhys Webb from the more established and respected band Horrors), they will need to build on these other sounds, rather than relying on Cohen’s breathy vocals and non-consequential lyrics to define their output.