Save Ends

Hug Your Friends EP

Written by: LF on 31/03/2016 16:06:39

I first encountered Save Ends through their full-length "Warm Hearts, Cold Hands" from 2013 which I still consider a solid record. With this short 13-minute EP, they continue their emo/pop punk style with the characteristic vocals of Brendan Cahill and Christine Atturio complimenting each other throughout the four songs that make up the release. The title "Hug Your Friends" is an imperative with an implied "(before it's too late)" connecting to the death last year of the band's friend Adam Haut, who also took the photo they're using as the cover art. In this emotionally heavy vein, the songs on the EP deal with melancholy and different kinds of loss.

"I Fell Asleep" opens the EP with a calm guitar pattern and Atturio's softer voice before the drums and Cahill's nasal vocals inject the song with more urgency. These two styles go back and forth until the song culminates two-thirds in with a heavy waltz-rhythm along with the ominous final words of "You told me that days like this would never last / I thought they could but you know / Seasons have shown that maybe you were right / After all".

Like the EP is ever so slowly getting in gear, "Smudge" knocks up the tempo slightly and follows up with the most addictive introductory build-up consisting of harmonies that start between two guitars, before Atturio adds a third layer with her uprising vocal lines, and finally Cahill's background singing pulls it a notch further on the highest notes. This is no doubt my favorite moment of the release and the song continues to rumble on for almost four minutes, echoing Atturio's desperate middle lines: "A restless mind, a fear of calm / Will someone stop this heart / From wondering, this heart from wondering".

Another mid-tempo song follows in the catchy "Love Like A Home" that's definitely not as idyllic as the title suggests. Here Cahill takes the lead and the guitars make some small surprising variations in between the very straightforward choruses that help to spice it up a bit. "Sam's Lament" ends the EP by cracking up the tempo with a more raw and relentless attitude explicitly expressed in lyrics like "I'll go home, but my soul just wants out". The dominating distorted guitars and slightly more noticable bass notes supports this feeling as they ground the song in a more heavy mood than the three previous ones.

The song ends rather abruptly and considering the EP's gradual increase in tempo and energy, it ends up feeling oddly unfinished and like something's missing. The band hasn't lost its knack for catchy bits of lyrics and melodies but the songs on this EP don't seem to have the same staying power as most of the ones I fell in love with on their album. Still, it's a good listen and it's a joy to follow the dynamic vocals that compliment each other so well.

Download: Smudge, I Fell Asleep
For The Fans Of: Tigers Jaw, The Anniversary, The Get Up Kids, Slingshot Dakota
Listen: facebook.com/SaveEnds

Release date 26.02.2016
Black Numbers

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