Wednesday, January 12, 2011

I Would Set Myself on Fire For You - 2006 Believes in Patterns


Band : I Would Set Myself on Fire For You
Album : Believes in Patterns
Release Year : 2006
Genre : Screamo / Experimental

Tracklist :
1. Twelve
2. Let the Jazz Band In
3. Six
4. Terrible Noise
5. Seven
6. #
7. Three (The First Word That Comes To Mind)
8. So This Is Our Home
9. Eight
10. Nine
11. Country Song


I Would Set Myself on Fire for You was an Atlanta, Georgia, United States based band that started in 2001, and broke up for unknown reasons in 2007. The band released two full-length albums on Stickfigure Records, in between several demos sold at concerts in the time they were together. The band featured viola in their songs, as well as acoustic guitar, cello, synth, saxophone, trumpet, and hand drums. Their music is sometimes dramatic, with the three vocalists often chanting in a round.
For how cool all of this is, the album has some major flaws. For one, its really just not very exciting or new. Yeah, I’ve never heard a viola in emo before, and although it may have been done (better perhaps) before, it was neat to hear. Thing is, they never truly utilize it in song. It’s one thing to throw in a keyboard or sitar in an interlude; its an entirely different thing to actually incorporate it into your core songwriting. Hearing perhaps a complimentary viola to Stephen’s guitar riffs would have been a unique way to try and capture the listeners attention.
Then there is the matter of how…unimpressive it all is. I didn’t hear many new ideas in all of this, except for maybe bongo’s in “#” which barely added to the overall experience at all. Sure, they use voicemail messages, dual vocal interplay, soft-loud dynamics, and other assorted hogwash that’s plenty cool enough, but they don’t use any of it to great effect. A lot of the time they sound like they’re actively ripping off Circle Takes the Square, and the other time it sounds like they’re substituting CTTS’s electronic interludes for sax/viola interludes instead. Its one thing to take influence a band, its another to sound entirely too much like them.
Believes in Patterns is a very enjoyable album. The only bad song here is “So this is Our Home,” a track only redeemable by Lindsey’s beautiful vocals. Everything else ranges from awesome (“Twelve, Seven, Three) to pretty good (The last three tracks) to okay (Six, Terrible Noise). It’s just that nothing here is new, and you can just go ahead and listen to other bands who do what they do better in the first place. I Would Set Myself On Fire For You are undoubtedly a talented band and I can’t wait to see what they do next, but Believes in Patterns is just highly enjoyable recycled ideas.



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