About a year has passed since Misser debuted its fantastic album Every Day I Tell Myself I’m Going To Be A Better Person, and the first notable difference between the two releases is the length of titles. Distancing finds itself exactly where an EP should: an effort to tide the fans over, to show them that their band is still around, writing music and evolving simultaneously.
The first three tracks of Distancing showcase the Misser that has become well known and loved by the majority of its scene. Each of these songs would fit in well with anything off the band’s debut. Nevertheless, it’s clear that Tim Landers’ cutting voice has stepped into a more prominent role to complement Brad Wiseman’s guttural yells. The change is welcome, though, showing two sides of the same emotional coin from two seemingly clashing vocalists who create angst-ridden harmonies.
The penultimate track “Alone, Die” is Distancing’s standout song while running at just under two minutes. The song’s entire structure is full of catchy riffs and lyrics, revealing it as the all-killer-no-filler track off Distancing. Misser, not surprisingly, makes another song of heartache and more blatant disgust become one of the catchiest tracks in its repertoire.
While “Alone, Die.” shows Misser turning everything the band excels in up to eleven, “Slow It Down // Write It Out” is something unheard of and new from the pop-punk outfit. The mid-tempo number is another short song at under two and a half minutes, but the length isn’t what’s vastly different; instead, Misser shows that it take off the gain and throw some extra musicianship into its music while still creating a solid tune. “Slow It Down // Write It Out” isn’t amazing or anything that’s astonishingly new; rather, it just shows that there’s more to Misser than meets the eye, and that is always a welcome sign of big things to come from a band that should be on everyone’s radar.
Tracklist:
1. Goddamn, Salad Days
2. Infared
3. Burn Out
4. Alone, Die.
5. Slow It Down // Write It Out
RIYL: Transit, Taking Back Sunday
Rating:
Written by Joe Wasserman
