The Get Up Kids
There Are Rules
Quality Hill Records
The Get Up Kids are legends. That’s what puts them in somewhat of a difficult position now they’re back on the scene and creating new music. The fans of the band the first time around are very much stuck in the albums released way back when. So any reaction to the band’s new material is going to be somewhat coloured by this bias toward their past releases. The best thing to do with the band’s new album – There Are Rules – is to forget they existed back then. Listen with fresh ears and make your mind up about it on the music’s merits alone.
It’s a different sound for the band but one that is equally honest and certainly true to where The Get Up Kids are right now. There are echoes of On A Wire and Guilt Show present as dark undertones abound from opener Tithe, with its reverberating bassline and scuzzy guitars as Matt Pryor’s vocal tops off the texture with a yearning insistence alongside its characteristic lilting melodiousness.
The Get Up Kids are playing with different sound qualities and textures constantly on this record. Automatic has an off-kilter, roving bassline interspersed with synth chords and The Widow Paris has a haunting, irregular keyboard line juxtaposed against a repetitive bass riff. The prominence of bass is a theme throughout this album with the guitars almost taking a backseat in many of the songs as bass and keys hold their own and Pryor’s vocal rounds it all off. An interesting direction and one which may throw existing fans of the band off-guard but ultimately this is an album well worth your time and a fantastic body of music in its own right.
Winegums.
Untitled from PAT VAMOS on Vimeo.
