Misser

Distancing EP

Written by: TL on 16/06/2013 13:23:33

With the surprising amount of success Misser had upon their emergence in the scene in 2012, rumblings could soon be heard in various corners of the internet, over whether the shared side-project of Transit and This Time Next Year members Tim Landers and Brad Wiseman could come to overshadow their two main bands. And with This Time Next Year breaking up at the end of the year and the critical backlash against Transit's recent "Young New England", it seems more and more logical from the outside, for Wiseman and Landers to focus their energy on Misser, yet the fact that they've now followed up on "Every Day I Tell Myself That I'm Going To Be A Better Person" with just an EP in "Distancing", seems to indicate that other things might still be distracting them from making a full push?

Whether that's the case or not, "Distancing" just show some progression, with opener "Goddamn, Salad Days" getting things started on a louder, more booming note than what we're used to. Misser sounds almost like Four Year Strong on this song, hinting a growth in power and ambition, yet the song overall isn't among their best, with the vocals seeming to get in each other's way rather than compliment each other in the chorus. Fortunately, the coming songs mix more of the band's Third Eye Blind-ish poppiness into the loudness and energy of the regular 2013 pop-punk, and the drop in instrumentation under "Infrared"'s first chorus puts the words in the listeners brain so they're there for singing along later in the song.

It's a good example of one of Misser's charming moments, because really it's the passages of theirs that are both sunny and a little sleepy, that's the key to their appeal, as EP closer "Slow It Down // Write It Out" is a welcome reminder of. Still the moment when they come closest to the irresistible catchiness they flashed on their debut, arrives in "Alone, die", a very Man Overboard-ish dose of bittersweetness, with bright melodies underscoring the angry hook "I'm gonna move to the west coast and you're gonna die alone".

Overall, "Distancing" is an encouraging sign of life and progress from the band and a welcome dose of sunny, dual-vocalist pop-punk, especially because it again casts Misser as a group that stands apart from the genre's division into bands that either try to sound like All Time Low or try to sound like The Wonder Years. That said, "Alone, die" is the only song that really strikes me as being as memorable as the better songs on the band's debut album, and for that reason I think that in a future when Misser has hopefully produced a handful of albums, "Distancing" is going to be a must-pickup mostly for the more dedicated fans.

Download: "Alone, die", "Infrared", "Slow It Down // Write It Out"
For The Fans Of: Man Overboard, Transit, Third Eye Blind, Four Year Strong, Set Your Goals
Listen: facebook.com/Missermusic

Release Date 28.05.2013
Rise Records

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