MILLIONTOWN

I stumbled across this album months ago and have only grown to love it more and more with every listen. As a debut album this CD is all the more unbelievable-every track is great in its own way. The album kicks off and ends in very progressive fashion, and these more proggy tracks sandwich some more straightforward (but still very entertaining and enjoyable) tracks. The opening instrumental Hyperventilate is a rewarding listen, including some wonderful piano work and very noisy (in a good way) production and driving rhythm, all the way to the intense finale. No Me No You is probably the most different from the rest with some prog-metal influence here. Dark vocals and chugging guitar opens up to some soaring synth lines making for a very varied track. Snowman is a surprisingly mellow and bittersweet song, a nice soft intermediate song, shortest on the album at under 4 minutes. It builds up with some beautiful vocal work toward the end. The Other Me is a very straightforward rock song but nonetheless very cool. Very driving and noisy rhythms, big and head-bobbing track. The final two tracks are far and away the best on the album. Black Light Machine is a great song, a cool guitar line opening working its way through to the end where things go crazy. But the masterpiece of the album is the title track, the prog epic Milliontown. It is a song packed full of beautiful melodies, interesting transitions and lyrics, and great solos and development. Marvelous song, highly recommended.

4.5 stars, for sure. I can't wait for their next album, Experiments in Mass Appeal.