It’s a blessing and curse when a band nails their sound immediately. Sheer Magazine introduced their devotion to the sound of ’70s laborious rock to a brand new technology with their much-hyped mid-2010s EPs, thanks to steer guitarist Kyle Seely’s gleeful and technically spectacular enjoying and singer Tina Halladay’s anthemic sing-a-long melodies that would unite a rally or a karaoke bar. You’d must squint to see their songwriting evolve from these EPs to their official 2017 debut, Must Really feel Your Love, and 2019’s comparatively clean-cut A Distant Name, the place the primary variations felt like Sheer Magazine have been capable of afford nicer studios. On Taking part in Favorites, the studio nonetheless sounds good, and the riffs and howls will nonetheless get cheers from the rock golf equipment. There are even a number of modest makes an attempt at sonic experimentation. Mockingly, Taking part in Favorites’ few tries at altering up the Sheer Magazine components present the boundaries of this band’s skills (or willingness) to evolve from the sound many individuals fell in love with a decade in the past.
Taking part in Favorites is a how-to-survive-in-this-world album, stuffed with declarations somebody may make after the strictest of pandemic lockdowns offers them time to pause and take into consideration how they wish to be handled. Within the case of the album opener and title monitor, Halladay’s first step into happiness is to pack up the van and journey into the sundown along with her mates, “Identical to the previous days, enjoying the identical previous songs.” A name to friendship, however possibly Sheer Magazine can be getting forward of the critics who could accuse them of repetition: What’s improper with enjoying the identical previous songs?
Nonetheless, “Taking part in Favorites” is an excellent showcase for Matt Palmer, Sheer Magazine’s rhythm guitarist and lyricist who offers the band its power-pop canvas for the opposite members so as to add their heavy rock thrives. “Eat It and Beat It” has a number of soiled, prog-like mini actions that drive Halladay to kick and scream by her robust love for the phony rockers who must study when to give up. As regular, the feeling of her vocals is extra compelling than its literal that means.
These opening songs are sturdy sufficient. Each descriptor you possibly can think about to explain Sheer Magazine right here—shimmering guitars, heavy riffs, basic rock boogie—may additionally apply to each previous Sheer Magazine album. Most of Taking part in Favorites battle so as to add new sounds to their vocabulary. After a quick acoustic intro, “Don’t Come Lookin’” steps again into the Sheer Magazine mid-tempo security zone of a tipsy 12-bar twang that hinges on generic lyrics a couple of wishing effectively. “Golden Hour” additionally reads generic and worse, sounds muddy and loud, destroying any sense of dynamics that assist construct up a tune’s pressure and launch. “Tea on the Kettle” is fairly with its energy ballad twinkles and a few precise lyrical imagery (“The previous canine cried behind the bus/You stopped the automobile trigger you hated to see him alone”) and “Paper Time” may be power-pop’s latest peak with regards to songs about ready for the newspaper to reach. Nevertheless, by the point we get to those songs in direction of the tip of the album, the fatigue of listening to acquainted riffs and howls begins to set in.
