Rock on the poppier side with a side-order of riffage…
Out on 20 May 2016 and reviewed here by Ian Savage
Citing influences like Four Year Strong, Sum 41 and A Day To Remember, one could justifiably expect a something of a modern trans-Atlantic feel to Swansea’s Seven Stories High. Take The Long Way Home is their second EP/mini-album, cramming seven tracks into the time it’d take to make a spaghetti carbonara from scratch; so what’s gone into the mix here?
Locked-in rhythm section with tasty double-kick flourishes? Check. Creamy harmonised sing-along choruses? Check. Tangy half-time breakdowns with time signature changes? Check. Occasional crunchy growled backing vocals obliging the reviewer to put the term ‘post-hardcore’ somewhere in the review? Present and correct.
From Fall Out Boy-esque opener ‘CTRL’, via weekend-day-job anthem ‘Working For Wednesdays’, through the lower-tempo rump of ‘Wait For It’ / ‘Skin Me Alive’ and culminating with hook-laden ‘Fool’s Paradise’, Take The Long Way Home is a perfectly-paced 21 minutes of pop-rock goodness. Well-written, proficiently-performed and immaculately-engineered, if you like your rock on the poppier side with a side-order of riffage you could do a lot worse than check these boys out.
8.5 out of 10
Track list:
- Intro
- CTRL
- That’s No Moon
- Working For Wednesdays
- Wait For It
- Skin Me Alive
- Fool’s Paradise
