When it comes to musical development, there’s a stage in the game where mixing up one’s style is a worthwhile risk, and stage where it’s not. If you are an established artist/band with a steady fan following, then a bit of change can be refreshing. If you’re just starting out, though? It’s probably best to avoid meshing styles until you’ve made it known exactly what you’re going for.
On their new album, Days Among Giants, Texas-based alternative band The Primary made the poor decision to try several different styles, and the result is an album that gives the impression that the band really hadn’t thought out what they wanted their sound to be.
Literally every song has a different style to it, from the Incubus-sounding “Get Out,” to the mellow yet heavy “Until Then,” to the psychedelic “The Trial of the Knave of Hear,” just to name a few.
It is entirely possible to listen to Days Among Giants and forget that you are listening to the same band throughout the whole album. The variation between songs is so distinct that it honestly hits a point where the listener has to double check that they’re still listening to the same album.
Overall, the vibe of Days Among Giants is that of a band still trying to figure out their own style, to the point that, rather than focusing on one style and sticking with it, they decided to just throw a bit of everything onto the album and hope something works.
Luckily for The Primary, they have enough talent (at least instrumentally—Josh Vasquez’s vocals get a little whiny at times) that their stylistic experimentation isn’t completely lost on the listener. Each variation they work with is done well enough that the band could easily just take their pick of which they like best and then run with it to make an album that has a consistent feel to it.
Despite the haphazard sampling of styles, Days Among Giants accomplishes the task of exposing listeners to The Primary’s talent, even if that talent comes across as slightly unfocused. This just happens to be one album where the songs have to be taken and appreciated individually, rather than as a collective whole.
Hot Tracks: The Trial of the Knave of Hear, All in Time
July 8, 2010
