By DJ Astrocreep
Having found Trevor’s Head on their sophomore release, ‘Soma Holiday’, I was massively stoked to see a new album invade the ÜR inbox. Boasting a rather intriguing mix of punk, rock and stoner, they’re not any type of standard fare that you may encounter in droves, such is the volume of music produced these days, but something a lot more heady. Time to dive into the first listen, then.
It’s heartening to hear that they have continued to refine their sound and not just stuck to where they were. While I really enjoyed their previous albums, hearing them zone in towards what may become their sound is definitely a positive, as previously it took a few listens to fully get to grips with their music. We even get a concept track in lead single ‘Call Of The Deep’, showing how their songwriting itself is progressing as much as their sound is as a unit, with the balance seemingly being ever adjusted to a finer point than previously.
The vocal harmonies that the now three members provide are still there, working well to provide both emphasis and contrast in songs, while the musicianship they have already proven is as strong as ever. The layering of instruments shows the production values are strong – something I would expect from any APF release, in fairness, having a lot of experience in their releases – with true delicacy shown at times, such as in ‘Elio’, which actually comes across closer to a Jethro Tull track! It shows that they definitely focused more on their softer side at times, such as here, than the raw power punk ‘n’ roll that they put across a lot in this album.
While their sound has evolved further still from before, this is not to the detriment of it, in any way. The more focused nature of the songwriting on ‘A View From Below’ has allowed them to be a bit clearer in their vision, rather than the slightly chaotic feel that they had in earlier releases, marking a growing maturity in their collective songwriting abilities. As they continue to push their own boundaries, it promises to be quite the musical journey and one that I cannot wait to take along with them. This is a high-quality album that stands an excellent chance of a spot in my end-of-the-year lists due to the leaps and bounds they have continued to make.
- ‘A View From Below‘ is out now.
I also recently got time to sit down with Trevor’s Head for a chat about the album:
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