Album Review: The Story Changes/Let Go - Analogies (Split)

The Story Changes and Let Go have joined forces to produce this split album, sounds relatively normal at first, loads of bands tend to release a split at some point in their careers. The difference with Analogies is that the two bands decided to hole themselves up in a studio, together! This has resulted in more of a ‘shared’ album than a split, with the 2 bands alternating on the track list; it makes for an interesting listen.

With Let Go vocalist/guitarist Jamie Woolford producing the album himself, and providing backing vocals and keys on some of The Story Changes’ songs, this possibly couldn’t get any more confusing!

The album kicks off in promising form, with The Story Changes flying into the energetic and catchy ‘Move Forward’, with its bittersweet dual vocals reminding me of the mighty Midtown in places. This is probably one of the strongest tracks on the album, a cracking start.

So then onto Let Go’s first effort, after The Story Changes raising the bar so high they have a lot to live up to. What we get is the more straight up rock ‘The Great Mistake’, that is until a rather bizarre synth kicks in and some rather random woahs echo through my speakers! This isn’t a bad track, but it’s definitely overshadowed by The Story Changes opening effort.

This is pretty much how things progress throughout the album, I think the two bands are probably musically pretty much on a par, but where The Story Changes take the plaudits is in the energy stakes, something that Let Go constantly fail to offer.

‘Two Feet On the Faultline’ reminds me of a Guilt Show era The Get Up Kids song that wouldn’t have made the cut! It does show some nice guitar work together with a cool keyboard ditty throughout but it simply falls into the ‘ok’ bracket.

‘Feel Alive’ by The Story Changes is evidence that they have been hanging around with Let Go for too long, this is the first track where they let themselves down. The energy that I previously mentioned that had served them so well drops and the song simply gets a bit repetitive and doesn’t really go anywhere!

Let Go finish with a cover of Tom Petty’s excellent ‘You Got Lucky’, is this a sign of the band running out of ideas? It’s a good cover to be fair, complete with uber cool 80’s synth, this track is actually their strongest song on the album which says it all really!

Like I mentioned before, both of these bands are pretty decent in their own right, but neither will blow you away. I don’t feel that you’ll be rushing to tell your friends about how you’ve found the next big thing!

Initially I really liked the idea of this album, and the way the bands took turns in showing the listener what they’ve got. Unfortunately though, after a few listens the reality for me is that doing this means you can’t connect with either The Story Changes or Let Go’s music, I seemed to spend more time checking who I was listening to and wondering what the next band is going to come up with than actually listening to the track that’s being played!! You miss out on any sort of consistency within the album. I feel that they would have been better served lumping their respective songs together and presenting the album in two halves.

I’d say fair play for trying something a little different, it’s just a shame it didn’t totally work out. Don’t write these bands off though, they both show glimpses of potential.

2.5/5

'Analogies' by The Story Changes/Let Go is available now on Future Destinations Records.

The Story Changes on MySpace
Let Go on MySpace

Matt Buck