RPWL : World Through My Eyes // review

[3-LockBox]

This is gonna hurt me more than it does them:

GO AWAY!... YA HEAR ME!...GO AWAY!...CANCHA SEE I DON'T WANT YOU HERE!...I HATE YOU...GO...YOU BISCUIT EATERS!

Are they still here? Damn....you see, its for their own good. I just hate to see another great band with so much potential get stradled with the 'progressive rock' moniker and have it become an albatros around their necks (like Porcupine Tree and IZZ).

Anyways, I really like this album, as I think it has something for everyone. Its spacey enough to get compared to Porcupine Tree, but it also has a slight indie sound to it in spots IMO. I can see the comparison to PT (the title track gets the nod here), but as someone else already stated, they're not near as dark lyrically. But, lyrically speaking, they do get a little corny at times (Sea Nature), but who pays attention to lyrics anyway .

They do sound a lot like 90's Pink Floyd stylistically speaking, say the Division Bell for example. And yes, the lead singer is a dead ringer for David Gilmore (so's the guitar playing). A couple of songs acually reminded me of IZZ, such as Day On My Pillow and Bound To Reach The End (I think a second vocalist sings these two). The song Wasted Land is evocotive of early U2 musically speaking, save for the vocalist. Songs like Roses and 3 Lights are worth the price of admission IMO. The only weak song in the bunch is a ballad Everything Was Not Enough, a Beatle-ish tune, sung by the non-Gilmore clone (as far I can tell, its a different person). Its acually a great tune, its just a tad long for those who don't like overt 'hurt' songs, but for me, its a very good pop number and I like it a lot. (the bass line toward the end is very reminescent of Dear Prudence to my ears). So yes, you can say that this band is a tad derrivative of PF, as well a few others, but at least they're not another Genesis clone.

I would recommend it to fans of older PF, PT, IZZ, fans of rock albums with strong writing (w/o cookie monster vocals), or someone looking for a rock album that doesn't sound like another post-punk garage band clone. Definately gonna check out the rest of this band's catalogue.

[BarryL]

[QUOTE=3-LockBox
I would recommend it to fans of older PF, PT, IZZ, fans of rock albums with strong writing (w/o cookie monster vocals), or someone looking for a rock album that doesn't sound like another post-punk garage band clone. Definately gonna check out the rest of this band's catalogue.[/QUOTE]

Thanks for the review. I'll have to pick this one up. I rather enjoyed their previous two, eventhough Stock felt like a bunch of out-takes to me. Still, good music to my ears.

[Finch Platte]

It sounds interesting. Sound bites here: http://www.towerrecords.com/product.aspx?pfid=3174326

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