STRAIGHT THROUGH THE SUN WITHOUT A SCRATCH

Always a refreshing and exciting accomplishment to get as deep as you can go with a band you love. And here, finally, after almost 10 years of knowing them, I'm onto the final single/EP and therefore will have thusly heard it all(!!!). Since I learned about this single, which I believe was the reason I went on this final hunt into their back catalog, I have loved that half the title is the first track and the other half is the second. It's the simple things, right?

And from the get-go, with "Straight Through The Sun", this is truly ASIWYFA as I first knew them, that bright, super melodic thing that can best be heard throughout their albums All Hail Bright Futures (2013) and Heirs (2015). Post-Rock ethos reveals itself fully here nearing the second minute, as much of the heaviness dissipates and their aptitude to morph their guitars into seemingly entirely different instruments is shown clearly. Pretty nice. Our so-called B-side is "Without a Fucking Scratch" (I usually barely censor myself for virgin ears, eyes and minds, but look! it's right there in the title!). This, funny enough, starts with what sounds like a well-loved (scratched up) vinyl recording. It's very lo-fi actually, but solid ideas on this'n. This is pretty classic Post-Rock and really I don't feel like a whole lot happened over the course of its 6-minute run. Decent, though, sure.