Alvarez Kings - Somewhere Between

Alvarez Kings
Somewhere Between
2017
Spotify

Going into Somewhere Between I had no experience with Alvarez Kings. There music is somewhat downtempo electronic with a heavy does of indie rock in it as well. They even slide close to the electropop side of things but never get all that bright. Their sound is similar to Parade of Lights but not a big and bold. They often go for these power ballad songs that pickup the pace as they go along like "Postcards From Berlin", however they seem to be missing an element something to give the song a bigger scale. They are trying to play these large stadium filling songs, but the final punch just is not there. Many of the songs lyrically try to be very poignant but only end up hovering around some juvenile idea about love and loving. The opening of tracks are often so promising like on "Tell-Tale Heart" but the actual songs does not deliver on what is promised. You just cannot shake the idea that this album feels out of it's time, perhaps ten years ago this might be novel but today it really doesn't sound like much of anything. Yet on the other hand there is not anything really wrong with the record other than that it just is not that exciting. Some songs have a great bounce like "Picking Up the Pieces" but never make that much of an impact. "Run From You" just repeats "I will never run from you" for the entire song until a preposterous guitar solo kicks in. "Run From You" is the first time the music actually gets really annoying while the rest is just kind of there.

There is just no edge to this entire record, but it doesn't come out in a sugary sweet way, it comes out in this brooding forlorn lover style. Alvarez Kings feel like that guy who is just obsessed with some girl , creating entire lives in his head when she doesn't even know who the fuck He is. The album does sail by because of how little impact it makes. I just keep coming back to this idea that the music is just so fine. I likely would never recommend this to someone, but I wouldn't be aghast if it came on a party. In Rock and Roll however vanilla is the last thing you want to be. Every track almost has the exact same pattern as well making a lot of the record sound exactly the same. The albums closer and title track "Somewhere Between" is so pining for love that it almost makes you cringe. The band may think this somewhat generic sound makes them more digestible to a larger audience, but in going for the middle they have missed even lower than they would have. I listened to this one so you don't have to, hard pass.

5.2 out of 10