Vopat, Sometimes It Will

Honestly, Vopat’s Sometimes It Will is actually a beautiful album, and it stays surprisingly interesting for a collection of Explosions In The Sky-esque instrumental ambient-rock movements. In fact, some songs even stray into darker — but still strikingly pretty — dissonance-filled numbers reminiscent of Smashing Pumpkins or Sonic Youth.

Not many can write a slew of four- or more minute instrumental songs with no solos but still manage to keep it interesting, but Vopat does it. All the transitions from one section of the songs to another section were timed perfectly to avoid being repetitive; I just really dig this album.

Normally I wouldn’t support the metallic, bare-bones drum programming throughout Sometimes It Will, but with the wall of distortion and slicing leads just made it work, and the use of smaller interludes to segue larger pieces had everything flowing beautifully into one another in a way i can only liken to, as cheesy as this may sound, the sea. To further this metaphor, sections and melodies rise and crash gently into one another in grand crescendos and then periodically calm, although never enough to become placid.

The album registered more to me as a score than as an album, because it wasn’t just a collection of thoughts but more of a progression or exodus from one place to another. I would suggest driving to this album; you’ll feel like you’re in a car commercial, but perhaps a really epic car commercial, where maybe Gandalf’s in the passenger seat and you’re driving maybe The Millennium Falcon.

The last track ventures into this creepy region of music that itself at times ventures close to a Latin sound, featuring this almost flamenco-esque breakdown with a pretty sweet lead line. As an outro for the album: genius move.

I think that’s all I can really say…it was really good. Also, in closing, this CD was ten tracks long, and just so the world knows, that is a really good number for tracks on an album. Eight, nine, ten, eleven — that’s the ticket. Don’t give 13 or 14, give me ten, like Vopat.