Westland - Intimacy w/o Intricacy - EP
Unsigned, 2013
7.5/10
Every once in awhile, a band comes along that feels like a collision of
everything this scene is about, a band whose music reflects the records
that made many of us fall in love with music in the first place and
makes us feel like our younger selves again. A few years ago, that band
was The Dangerous Summer, combining the likes of Taking Back Sunday, The
Starting Line and Jimmy Eat World into an emotive blend of melodic pop
rock. Last year, it was Daytrader, who took that Jimmy Eat World
influence, drenched it in the dark atmospherics of their favorite Brand
New records, and created something that was at once familiar and
refreshing. And if I have to nominate a band for the title this year,
then my earliest choice is Westland, a talented alt-pop group from
Boston whose brand-new EP, entitled
Intimacy w/o Intricacy, plays
out like an infusion of the melodic sensibility of Sherwood and Good
Old War, the radio friendly surge of All Time Low, The Maine, or Boys
Like Girls, and a tinge of nineties radio rock.
Intimacy w/o Intricacy, only six songs and 20 minutes in
length, acts less as a cohesive record and more like a sampling of
everything Westland can do, but there’s nothing terribly wrong with
that. We get the electronica-infused trance-ballad (“Slowly,” which
carries the EP out in balladic ambiance); we get the slightly-generic
play for modern-rock radio that is “For the Moment Star,” a song whose
repetitive, “been there, done that” chorus nearly derails a
foot-stomping guitar intro, strong verses, and a booming bass-line
(courtesy of Nick Karidoyanes, who anchors the band on numerous
occasions throughout this record). Still, frontman Aaron Bonus goes for
broke here, bringing more than a little bit of rock ‘n’ roll edge to the
proceedings, and while the song isn’t entirely successful on its own,
it’s at least nice to know that this band, so good at dwelling in the
earworm pop-punk department, isn’t afraid to turn the amplifiers up to
11.
But still, it’s hard to deny that Westland is at their best with a
greater level of pop sheen behind them. Case-in-point is “Jack and
Coke,” the first single from
Intimacy and the band’s greatest bid
for mainstream success. Building from a piano-heavy intro (one that
nostalgically echoes Semisonic’s “Closing Time”), the song explodes into
a visceral, shout-along chorus. Bonus’s voice soars on the high notes,
the guitars crashing around him, and for an instant, Westland seem to
have recovered the keys to Marty McFly’s DeLorean and gunned it to 88,
taking us back to the golden age of pop punk. Indeed, the vast majority
of
Intimacy w/o Intricacy feels like something I would have been
absolutely in love with when I was a freshman in high school. My tastes
have moved forward quite a bit since then, but there’s still a lot to be
said for a band that can generate such a clear frame of throwback
nostalgia, especially when they didn’t even
exist as a musical
outlet when I was a freshman in high school (the band formed in 2009). I
don’t know if I can quite explain the impact here, but rest assured
that it’s a monumentally personal one, something that will keep me
coming back to this record all year long, and I’d wager this band will
do something similar to a lot of listeners from around here.
“Bleed” layers vocals, guitars, strings, and acoustics for a similar
effect, though its chorus isn’t quite as meteoric as “Jack and Coke.”
The song’s break sounds like something that wouldn’t have been out of
place on Jimmy Eat World’s
Stay on My Side Tonight EP, and the
use of acoustic instrumentation, though minimal, is a nice change of
pace that I’d challenge the band to explore further in the future. “Too
Late,” meanwhile, is the catchiest song on the record, opening with a
gorgeous pomp-and-circumstance swirl of piano and strings, and
transforming into a Something Corporate-esque showstopper. Producer Shep
Goodman, known for his work with pop bands and solo acts, works his
magic here, surrounding the bus-sized chorus with the kind of pop sheen
that could make the song a global hit. Certainly, the radio waves have
rarely embraced our scene, but with a shifting mainstream music
landscape that put fun. on top of the world last year and made bands a
force to be reckoned with again, could the hopeless romantics in
Westland find themselves notching some national success? With a set of
songs as solid as
Intimacy w/o Intricacy, I must confess that I’d be happy to see it happen.
