I tend to stay away from depressing things. Not because I don’t like sad stuff - in truth some of my favorite music is of the more depressing persuasion - it’s just that nowadays that stuff tends to leave me pretty bummed out. When I first listened to Songs To Drive To; Cry, And Make Love To by Courtesy Drop, I could tell it was going to depress the shit out of me - and it did. I’m happy for not shying away from it, though, because in the process I experienced an album good enough to get that kind of reaction out of me. Songs To Drive To; Cry, And Make Love To runs the gamut of gloomy emotions with its mellow atmosphere and fantastic songwriting.
Courtesy Drop’s latest makes it clear very early on what it sets out to do. With a title as self-explanatory as Songs To…, it is pretty hard to not know what you’re getting yourself into. And for the most part the album succeeds in that. Songs like “Dormant Dreams” and “A Toast To The Valiant Phil Coulson” confidently switch between a quiet atmosphere and the strenuous shouting of lines like “wasting away is how I spent the better pat of my days.” And while those songs accomplish setting the depressing tone of the album, it’s songs like the punk-as-fuck “Stranger Than Friction” and the ethereal “Fork In The Road”, which also features a fantastic female vocalist, to accentuate the more obvious stuff by being different. The amount of little surprises to be found in Songs To… is a huge boon to the quality of the whole album.
Songs To… does have its fair share of missteps, however. Firstly, the album has thirteen tracks, and while that’s not inherently bad, extended length does not compliment the type of music Courtesy Drop plays. I found myself taking intermittent breaks between chunks of songs simply because of how depressing some of it can be. While the fact that it can get such a response out of me is undoubtedly a testament to how excellent the music is, maintaining that response through thirteen tracks can get exhausting. The only other small gripe I have with the album would be the sequencing of tracks. I felt like some tracks would benefit from playing directly before or after others, though it ended up feeling like a missed opportunity.
But despite all that, Songs To Drive To; Cry, And Make Love To is Courtesy Drop’s best effort so far, and along with the resurgence the early-2000s emo sound, I could see this album picking up some steam when it comes out. While it may be a lot to take in a once, and very far from lighthearted, this album is a success in creating so much emotion that it’s sadness seeps into you while you listen. Although I may keep myself away from stuff like that intentionally, I am more than grateful for giving this fantastic album a chance.
Tracklist:
1. History Will Remember Our Generation As A Shining Example Of How Not To Exist
2. Goodbye, Fairlane Drive
3. Dormant Dreams
4. Appleseeds From Ash Night
5. A Toast To The Valiant Phil Coulson
6. Mineral Extracts
7. Not All Those Who Feel Pain Are Hurt
8. Science Is A Liar Sometimes
9. Truck Jamz, Vol. 1
10. Stranger Than Friction
11. Fork In The Road
12. Head, Shoulders, Knees, And Toe.
13. Superbook
RIYL: Balance And Composure, Ivy League TX
Rating:
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