From the first opening slide of “Dead Days” to the last desperate screams on “Rose”, I was enamored with what Picture Perfect had created in their most recent release, Rose.
The record’s pacing feels absolutely spot on. It straddles the line between being overly aggressive and far too mellow quite often, but never falls off course. Lyrically, this record is chock-full of great one-liners and has vast improvements from the band’s previous efforts, yet still leaves room for improvement. Something to praise lyrically is that Picture Perfect never sugarcoats anything or strays away from saying what they truly mean, which is an admirable quality to have in songwriting.
The music and musicianship itself, though it doesn’t break too many barriers or go outside of the box, is well done. You get the feeling that the band is tight together and can truly pull off some of the more explosive moments from this record live. Even the more minimalist songs pull off this feeling, such as “Stone”, which contains one of the most gentle group vocals from a band in this genre. Along with that, I never get tired of hearing the first initial snare roll when the drums first kick in midway through.
The record isn’t without its faults: The vocals suffer majorly in points, “Carved Into the Bridge” being one of those, and some of the songs don’t develop enough to hold interest. “You’re A Stranger” is a great example of one of the times where the song loses the interest of the listener and never breaches the limits of standard song form, keeping the same pacing and predictability throughout. I kept waiting for the song to explode into a larger-than-life chorus or bridge, and while the song does slightly pick up, it never does to the extent to truly hit those lyrics home.
I genuinely enjoyed listening to Rose. Picture Perfect is a band to keep a keen watch out for in the future, as they are making all the right steps to stand out in a scene that more often than not regurgitates the same styles and songs over and over. This band keeps steadily improving with every release and I'm excited to see what they have for us next.
Tracklist:
1. Dead Days
2. Off The Grid
3. Everyone And Everything
4. Stone
5. Voodoo
6. You're A Stranger
7. Cycle
8. Carved Into The Bridge
9. Decompose
10. Rose
RIYL: Neck Deep, Seahaven, The Story So Far
Rating:
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