Distant Like You Asked, the newest from Canada’s Like Pacific, is a wonderful blend of hardcore and emo that equally amps you up and brings you down. Musically, there is a plethora of superb guitar work throughout the record which prods out distinct feelings reminiscent of early 00s emo and pop punk. The layered chords and atypical harmonies coexisting with standard chord progressions sound familiar, yet new, and the songs benefit greatly from the strong nostalgia they well up. Lyrically, this album is on point, while occasionally faltering, the words and generally meaningful and impressively done.
The album starts off aggressively with “Richmond,” a song that’s highlighted by a chaotic bridge and “Distant,” one of the songs where that wistful, early 00s nostalgia is felt heaviest, though blended with the new mass of The Story So Far styled grit. Songs like “Assisted Breathing” and “22a,” which has some of the best harsh vocal on the record, keep that aggressiveness high and going, but the harshness of it all wears quickly on the ears. The song “Commitment” contains a lot of the pop-punk clichés: the 2nd carried by bass, the filtered drum section, etc. It also contains some of my favorite drum work on the album and a superb bridge that would’ve been an excellent ending to the song, but it continues on with some transitions that feel a bit forced.
Unfortunately, the album doesn’t really hit home until late in the game with the last 3 songs. “Chine Drive” is a stellar audio accomplishment for the band that oozes raw emotion fitting to perfection with the lyrics representing those emotion. It builds up to one of the better transitions I’ve ever heard on a record. This all leads into the cool “Dim.” This is all leading up to the finale, “Scarred” which a true last track as in it encompasses everything that the album is about and rolls it into one song.
Distant Like You Asked is a good record and I had a lot of fun listening to it, but there’s quite a bit of flaw to muddle through as well. Many times, the themes feel repetitious as do some of the musical sections from song to song and though the record revolves around what feels like a central theme, there’s just a bit too little difference throughout to keep me entertained always. While I certainly loved the harsh vocals in many parts of the record (“22a” especially) sometimes they lost their impact because of how often and commonplace they seemed. I was grateful for the sections of clarity that seldom lasted.
The rest is really nitpicky and meaningless bias. I don’t like the direction some songs go after a chorus, the songs all follow a similar structure, the words “Worthless Case” feel unimportant after hearing them so much throughout the song with the same title… but all in all, I truly enjoy this record. It will get its plays and I can’t wait to show some of my friends this because to them, it’s a shoe in for their album of the year lists.
Tracklist:
1. Richmond
2. Distant
3. Worthless Case
4. Assisted Breathing
5. 22a
6. Commitment
7. Hang
8. Chine Drive
9. Dim
10. Scarred
RIYL: Early 00s Emo, The Story So Far, Four Year Strong vocally
Rating:
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