A State Of War
by Poni Hoax

From sageamagoo 03/29/2013 02:14 | #70381

[EDIT: Some parts of this comment no longer apply. I've grown to like this album a lot, especially The Word and Leaving Home Again, which I overlooked previously. Good despite its flaws; the lyrics (as I suspected) have a lot to reveal.]


This album did not quite live up to my expectations. I think it may still need a few more listens, but the first two albums have so much more creativity...

They went for a slight change of sound on this album. Things are more poppy, more upbeat. The synthesizer sounds are less unique, things are more frantic... and none of this helps the album very much.

I also had to wonder where the guitar went. That's what made Sigrid so much more advanced... The way they fused their two worlds together to make something unique and special... None of that is on this album.

That's not to say that this album is bad. It was just a disappointment after Images Of Sigrid and one of the singles released before the album came out, Life In A New Motion. Which is a badass song, btw. It's the peak of the album, and the only place where it lets things get sparse and air out a bit... So much of the album is densely compact, with synths coming from all directions, and with Life In A New Motion you finally get a bit of calm.

The first half of the album is so much better than the second half. There's Nothing Left to Life In A New Motion all sounds great, and manages to stick in your head a bit too. Even the opening track isn't bad, it's basically a big buildup to warm us up for what's to come.

But... then there's the last half...

Summerfalls is the dud of the album. Poni Hoax should not try to write songs like this. Too much pop. It doesn't work.

Winter Seal starts thunderous (literally), but then you're hit with autotune and it's no longer as promising as it once seemed.

Leaving Home Again and The Word are slightly better, but still mediocre compared to the greatness of the band's catalogue. But Young Americans is actually not half bad... It's got a few surprising aspects that make it the best from the second part of the album. Like acoustic guitar (A first for Poni Hoax?) and ending with this jazzy chord before going into the foreboding thunder of the next track.

Soo... yeah. That's the album. It's the shortest, least creative work the band's put out, but really, it's a good album if only for the first half. I'm probably a bit too hard on it for a first listen, but I'll come back and talk about it once I learn any secrets it may have hidden. (The lyrics booklet that came with the cd makes me really hopeful: it contains some of the best passages the band has created.)

So I'll leave you with the lyrics from the final song from the album, and you can make any conclusions from there:

"Come with me my little child
There's no one left around today
The sun is gone, we've blown it away
This is the place where you can lay
We'll find a name for you to use
An ancient flame, a mighty excuse
Engrave the Word into your brain
And the world will start to spin around again."