The Appleseed Cast, The End of the Ring Wars

I had this album for a long time before I was able to write anything about it. I listened to it several times and still have next-to-no recollection of the lyrics to any of the songs. And yes, I know that sounds bad, but strange as it sounds, the music of the album has stuck with me, days and weeks later, filtered into my subconscious mind. I’ve caught myself humming a beautiful little melody, with no clue where it came from…until I listened to the CD again, and it suddenly appeared as the intro to “Marigold & Patchwork.” This album IS a very beautiful album, just more subtle than a lot of others out there. The melodies are the sweetest I’ve heard this side of Spent’s first album, the choruses are majestic and swaying, and the songs themselves are drawn-out and shimmering, almost enough to even forget there are lyrics to the songs. “Stars” is almost dreampop, more Spiritualized than “emo” (an easy tag, considering the Deep Elm label on the record), and even features a nice saxophone part. On the other side of the coin, the angry rejection song “The Last Ring” cranks up the noise, never losing the underlying sad beauty, and “16 Days” speeds along like a night-time drive on an empty highway. The End of the Ring Wars may not be the kind of CD you keep in the changer and listen to incessantly, but still, the music will remain with you and creep up on you when you’re not even thinking about it.

(Deep Elm Records -- P.O. Box 1965, New York, NY. 10156, 212-532-3337; )

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