Oh, Clemency

Visitations EP

Written by: TL on 12/02/2010 00:56:01

A few weeks ago, I was trawling through myspace in search of fresh new bands relevant to my interest, sharing my findings with Mr. Daniel Roe, while ranting about my theory of how all Scottish and Australian bands are seemingly awesome without exception. Daniel, not being trifled with, took about five minutes and then produced a myspace link to a band called Oh, Clemency, and after a quick listen, I had to reluctantly agree that he might have topped some of my findings with them and their "Visitations EP", so naturally, I made a mental note to share it with you readers.

The first thing that is bound to cross your mind when you first hear these guys is "Holy God, is that Jonny Craig?" and while I know I've said so before, just listen for yourself and see if I'm not justified. The similarity is quite stunning, and seeing how the music is a similar sort of r'n'b-core (term hereby patented) to Emarosa, fans of mr. Craig's work should be instantly on board.

As with Emarosa however, the songs here don't really open up to you right away, and you might be inclined to think that this is just another band that have no other ideas than to let their singer show off for phrase upon phrase all EP through. That was my initial reaction, and consequently, "Visitations EP" sat outside of my regular rotation for a few weeks, only receiving a casual spin or two a week - .. Until I suddenly realized that those few spins had been enough to embed about half the record's lyrics and quirks solidly in my mind, without me ever really taking notice!

The truth, as it looks from my perspective, is that Oh, Clemency are just a tiny bit better at penning songs than Emarosa, borrowing shamelessly hip-moving rhythms and riff-sorts from more funky bands like Dance Gavin Dance and Closure In Moscow, also adding scarce but classy keys and wrapping it all up in really catchy packages that can soon cause you to mimic every whisper and croon of the frontman's vocal acrobatics. The frontman who also soon reveals himself (On the closing "Acoustic #1") to be more than a Jonny Craig clone, as his performance on this softer song also shows considerable similarity with a singer in a certain little band called Maroon 5.

Now I have heard a few complaints, about this band being too much of an Emarosa clone, or about their drums being too 'heavy' for a band of their kind or blablablabla. Can it, show me some credit, and spin this once or twice a day for three to four days, and I swear you may call me a failure if "In Dreams She Runs" or "Pheromone" aren't playing in your head with regular intervals. Personally, I can't get them out of my mind, despite trying hard to do so with other awesome records for a weeks time, and considering how they managed to get like this, while I was not even paying attention, I have only one thing to say: I want more!

8

Download: In Dreams She Runs, Pheromone, Sleepwalking
For The Fans Of: Emarosa, Jonny Craig, Dance Gavin Dance, Closure In Moscow
Listen: myspace.com/ohclemency

Release Date 2009
*UNSIGNED BAND*

Related Items | How we score?
Comments
comments powered by Disqus

Legal

© Copyright MMXXIV Rockfreaks.net.