Means – To Keep Me From Sinking

Goddamn it, is it me? What the hell is going on here? Has Gorman played a cruel trick on me and sent ten copies of what is essentially the same fucking record over and over again, or is it just my tin ear? Either way, it’s becoming more and more difficult to write a few-hundred-word review regarding albums I feel like I’ve heard a few hundred times before. Unfortunately, this includes Means and their full-length, To Keep Me From Sinking.

The recipe for this type of stuff seems contextually pretty simple – though to their credit, I’m sure it’s not easy to play. Part one: Off-kilter, stop on a dime, punishing rhythms and instruments weaving and bobbing amongst each other. Make sure it sounds like your vocalist is spewing blood over the top of it. Lyrics must, must, must be in a poetic, cryptic, uber-personal vein. Part two: Meandering, nay, pretty guitarwork with another guy lilting and crooning ballad-style over that. Then back to part one. Repeat. There’s your song. Repeat ten times. There’s your album.

It’s formulaic. I normally wouldn’t be so harsh, but my God I’ve been hearing a lot of this type of stuff recently and the similarities are downright eerie.

Yet, I don’t entirely mean to be so dismissive to Means, because there is something about these guys that sets them apart and above their contemporaries, if only by a smidge– maybe it’s the that fact that their pictures aren’t slathered all over the fucking packaging and that they don’t entirely come across as pretentious twits in their lyrics or liner notes, that makes this a bit more palatable than their sonic brethren. It’s just that there are so many bands doing this type of stuff right now, this rehashed, “insert crazy part than mellow part where our singer shows he could be in a musical if he wanted to be” shit. Bands like Meansare chock full of excellent musicians who apparently can’t find a solid, discernible hook between them to save their lives. All of the songs sound the same, and again, it all just sounds like a collection of random parts strung together.

It’s so goddamn frustrating – for me as a listener, who just doesn’t get it. And I’m sure it’s frustrating for the band as well, because I’m reviewing their record and am so obviously one of those guys who just doesn’t get it.