Album Review: Two Tongues - Two Tongues

When details of a Say Anything-Saves The Day ‘super group’ was announced last year, expectations for this record were high. Surely anything with modern great songwriters Max Bemis and Chris Conley can’t disappoint right?

Well thankfully they don’t. From the start this self-titled record bursts into life with ‘Crawl’, a soft guitar leads into Bemis shouting his head off with Conley being brought into calm things down a little. It’s a fast paced track with good structure and blend of each others vocals, which lives up to expectations.

Next ‘If I Could Make You Do Things’ sees a calming guitar with Chris and Max playing off each other well and to an extent they are fighting between one another. This is because one of the running concepts throughout this album is the relationship between 2 people. Some may see it as a romantic relationship, whilst others see it as Max and Chris’s friendship.

The album continues with highlights such as ‘Tremors’ and ‘Silly Game’. Both of which showcase well-paced rhythm and good structure, this at times does sound like both of the bands other work. However this does not diminish the record.

‘Don’t You Want to Come Home’ slows things down momentarily with Conley for the most part taking over vocals until a quick guitar solo briefly intercepts. ‘Wowee Zowee’ speeds things up again and proves to be one of the best songs on the album, as it takes the best parts of Say Anything and Saves The Day and blends them together into this 2 and half minute of alternative rock heaven.

One of the problems of this album was that it is hard for it not to fall into the trap of sounding like the bands each other have come from. Unfortunately it could be considered that this does happen on couple of occasions, with ‘Try Not to Save Me’ sounding very much like a Saves The Day outtake with Conley dominating vocals and its slow beat with light guitar elements, making it sound rather familiar.

Towards the end, the album begins to drag along with ‘Even If You Don’t’ ending the album on a slightly poppy note with a beat that bounces along, with Bemis and Conley once again playing off each other well.

As I said at the start of this review, ‘Two Tongues’ does not disappoint, especially if you are a fan of each others previous work. It has the best elements of both and has been made into a record that has plenty of longevity. It has cleverly written lyrics by both front men, that has been combined with strong instrumentation from all 4 members (lets not forget the band also includes Coby Linder of Say Anything and Dave Soloway of Saves The Day).

The only downfall of the record is that it begins to grow a bit tiresome near the end and when it’s over you feel somewhat relived it’s over. Nevertheless this does not make it one of those awful ‘super group’ records that have been attempted in the past. It truly is a great record from a band with too much talent for there own good.

4/5