Aereogramme, A Story in White

A twang of guilt at my perpetual tardiness in writing reviews for this here zine resulted in me putting this disc in my CD player. The result of that action was a compulsion to write this particular review right this instant, so that I don’t have to listen to this particular album ever again. So, to cut to the chase, I don’t like this album. Perhaps I’m getting old and crotchety, but I just can’t get into most of the music coming out of the emo-rock craze currently sucking the remaining life out of indie-rock. I’m not even sure if this properly qualifies as emo (probably not), since much of it comes across as bargain basement Mogwai, but I’ll include it anyway just based on the vocals. A lot of the songs on this album have long boring soft parts with annoying sensitive-boy singing, alternating with somewhat majestic distortion pedal parts, either with more sensitive-boy singing or some emo-screaming. Every now and then I find myself really getting into the music, only to have the vocals so rudely interrupt with classic lines like “Fuck the devil / Fuck myself”. Looking at the press release, I see that Aereogramme are from Glasgow, include ex-Ganger singer/guitarist “Craig B”, and are pals with Mogwai. If only that were enough.