A Will Away

Cold Weather EP

Written by: TL on 15/01/2014 18:37:59

A Will Away are a relatively small pop-punk quintet from Connecticut whom I picked up for what I first thought would be a pretty straightforward yet unexciting review. I hadn't heard of the band before, so I'm unfamiliar with their 2012 album "Product Of Your Environment" or its preceeding "Not Far From Home EP" from 2011, but still it only took about two runs through their newly released "Cold Weather" EP to make me change my mind about the unexciting part. For while the band may seem at a glance like just your average pop-punk outfit full of bright guitar figures and up-beat tempos, an only slightly closer inspection will reveal that the recognisable melodies and the genre-typical, unfiltered, personal lyrics soon reveal some embedded big-song potential, aided greatly by the raspy singing of the band's frontman, whose spry and precise diction do theirs to drive home the hooks.

And since we're in the business of pop-punk, hooks are of course the alpha and the omega, and fortunately, A Will Away have made sure to bring a decent few along in the five tracks "Cold Weather" contains. The bright, A Loss For Words-ish opener "Carousel" might not be the strongest example of that - despite the devilish guitar-notes chiming beneath its chorus, but the intertwining vocal lines of the chorus to "Livin'" starts to flash potential and "True North" brings things to a central high with the muted-strum backed second chorus going "I can't believe you're surprised, when faced with my arrogance, faced with my habit for hating myself!". Catchyness is more consistently on the menu from there on out, as "Lines In The Sand" confesses "If I was a good Christian man, we wouldn't be having this talk" before "The Masochist's Daughter" one-ups all the previous records with a "[...] right hook, that's got his name on it / you wrote the hand book, of how to be dishonest".

Overall then, "Cold Weather" is a good first impression from A Will Away, which overcomes a perhaps slightly too typical instrumental tone with strong vocal performances and enough immediately infectious moments to make you want to come back to it. The only thing to wonder is why the band opted to save the catchiest song on it for last.

Download: The Masochist's Daughter, True North, Lines In The Sand
For The Fans Of: A Loss For Words, Mallory Knox, Real Friends, You Me At Six
Listen: facebook.com/AWillAwayOfficial

Release Date 07.01.2014
Self-released

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