Sights and Sounds are a band whose name is a statement about themselves, when you look at the album artwork for their new release Monolith you are mesmerised by beautiful imagery and when you play the record you are barraged by an array of different sounds.
Unfortunately this isn’t the best thing in the world, as sometimes the songs sound like Isis and sometimes they sound like Thrice. Although Sights and Sounds are clearly a very talented band, you often feel like instead of creating their own sound they have taken what bands have already invented and tried to throw it together to make something new but it doesn’t always work.
The album has a whole stoner rock vibe about it, which is a positive on Sights and Sounds’ behalf as that genre of music is having a real resurgence at the moment and hopefully they will get in on that. Songs such as The Clutter and Pedal Against the Wind have a very similar sound to progressive emo bands such as Brand New and it’s a sound that really works for the band and suits singer Andrew’s voice really well.
This band is obviously a very experimental band and although Monolith may be quite a confused album it has a lot of potential and I feel that a lot of people will dig it. I really hope that Sights and Sounds define themselves more clearly by the time they release another album as I get the feeling it could be something special.
Jonathan Teggert