If anything, they exchanged that angst for heartbreak. Eyes is chock full of tunes about love, unrequited and otherwise. The guitars are hard-charging but dial back for the verses in "Pine Tree State," where "you are my north star, when I'm lost and far away." They wrote "American Blues" in the studio with Wyman, who helped them cultivate a clipped vocal delivery from Roy and a great guitar break to precede the second verse: "She sighs, 'You'll be sorry running back to me when Karma comes your way.'"
And "We Love like Vampires" is the best of the bunch, opening with just the vocals and drums, the most icy track here, with keyboards in the background (keyboardist Marty McMorrow left the band amicably) and a chorused backing vocal that is auto-tuned, like robots are doing the backing, toying with the conventions of today's pop music, where Auto-Tune seems to be some kind of prerequisite. The bridge gets all whispery, Roy claiming, "You never fight fair/You're always jumping on my back," and just see if you can't keep from singing along with the call-and-response from the backing vocals.
But there's a blast from the past here, too. For the third time, the band have released "Saco Boys Have No Class," which first appeared on the Hey Mr. Allure EP, then showed up on the Double Blind Records release The Secrets We Can't Keep. While there's something to be said for the original's stripped-down sound, lending to the desperation of the stalker protagonist, this new version is evidence of how much more confident and assured guitarists McAllister and Patrick O'Connell are, how much smarter and more authoritative is drummer Nate Spencer, how much more body Roy has added to his voice.
"This isn't desperate for me," Roy sings, and it's like he's once again singing for the whole band. They've always worked their band like it was their job, but it wasn't out of desperation for success. They just can't imagine doing anything else.
Sam Pfeifle can be reached at sam_pfeifle@yahoo.com.
