[rating=4.50]
Navigating the waters of post-collegiate life has become a 21st Century rite of passage. There is a gleeful hue attached to the countenance of those in their early 20’s as the tempting promise of a successful future up ahead awaits. School is complete, a work schedule gets established, and romantic relationships are either blossoming into something more tangent or dissipating into oblivion as life leads lovers in separate directions. And if you are one of the unlucky ones in love, that’s okay, because you’re just another night out away from meeting someone new and even better.
As most learn, though, there is that dark undercurrent lurking below that can shadow even the most optimistic of folks. Before too long, people find out their degree doesn’t mean as much as it should, and that first job that seemed so promising is now a dead end. Nights out don’t seem as fun or climactic as they once did but you keep going out because the alternative of staying in alone still doesn’t appeal as much as it should. You may dream of moving but instead stay tethered to your hometown because it’s easier and safe and before too long new patterns of life emerge bringing with them their own unique set of successes, challenges and hardships. It is the nature of life and the necessities of growing up in America.
KNESSET, a young band out of Phoenix, captures these dualities well on their aptly titled debut album, Coming of Age. Songwriter and vocalist Evan Fox writes of the aforementioned themes with a lived-in, well-worn aesthetic; unlike a lot of current songwriters today mining similar territory, you believe Fox and trust in the veracity of his tales. He speaks of passing the time writing songs while hanging around a distant town in the buzz-worthy track “Raw Sound”. Perhaps it’s a foreign tour stop and Fox is capturing his thoughts from a dimly lit motel room or perhaps it’s an everyman traveling salesperson, fiddling the night away on a work trip. Either way the sentiment resonates. Elsewhere Fox sings of regret: the sentiment-heavy “Brain Waves in Flight”, immature relationship shenanigans in “Bitter Hearts”, and makes heartfelt pleas for stability in the epic vibes of “Tell Me All Your Lies”. The album’s ten tracks play out like a soundtrack to the decade of one’s 20’s. Times are never really that bad, just frustrating in places and lacking in direction. Fox has penned a set of tunes to get you through this era or fondly reminiscence back on how it used to be before you got it all figured out.
The music on this album is a shimmering fuse of shoegaze, alt-rock, and power pop channeled through the spirits of contemporary acts like Blonde Redhead and American Analog Set or predecessors like My Bloody Valentine and New Order. Fox’s guitars blend well with the creative rhythms lied down by drummer Jeffrey Olsen and percussionist Mitchell Manger. Horns, vibraphones, and piano also pop up throughout the album adding strikingly nuanced layers of texture to the sound, bulking it up the loud moments of bombast and subtly aiding the quieter tracks. It’s an ear-pleasing record, perfectly suited to blasting through a sound system or playing through a set of headphones on the go.
Coming of Age is an amazingly crafted debut from a young band we’ll hopefully hear more from as time progresses. It will be interesting to see how their songwriting and thematic elements develop as they age and matriculate among the rock and roll lifestyle. They’ve captured a particular slice of life well this time around. Here’s to hoping they keep it up and reward us with a long career.
