Album: Change Of Scenery
Release Date: August 9, 2019
Genre: Alternative Post-Rock
Laughed The Boy wanted to try something different for their newest album Change Of Scenery. While the last album was recorded at a fast pace, the band slowed down and recorded it within a week. The band added piano and even violin to this album, compared to the one set of styles on the previous album.
The opening track “Parade Of Elephants” leads beautifully into “Skeleton Key” with the piano making a good transition piece to the high-toned guitar and the hypnotic vocals of the lead vocalist. “Good and Bad” starts off with one of the funkiest bass lines I’ve heard in a while. This song sounds so much like classic transadelic rock from the early 80s.
“Post Card”, which was the first song that played for me on their Bandcamp page, is a soulful melody of beautiful instruments and happy vocals. This is a good song to get people interested in the band before checking out the full album. The next track “Sun” is an acoustic/string adventure that just made me enjoy it right from the start. The lyrics in this song are very creative, it’s worth a listen.
“Night Shade” is the longest track on the album and gives us a great variety of the styles this band can give you, as it goes from heavy to melodic and back again with ease. The rip-roaring of the amplifier at points show a grunge side while a bass keeps going in the background.
“I Can’t Tell” is a beautiful song. The singer really shows their passion for the song in this one as you can feel the happiness throughout the song. “Broken Arch” is similar to the opening and second track of the album, leading with a piano into a melody of instruments. The style of this band is unmatched when it comes to a variety of sounds they can produce on a singular album.
For their second outing, Laughed The Boy tried something new and it worked. In this age of music, trying new things usually cause backlash but Laughed The Boy brought a new style in with confidence and it shined through. I’m excited to see where this new style takes them.