Album Review: Atlantic/Pacific - Meet Your New Love

We’re all familiar with the vast array of side projects and super groups being formed throughout the years, but many have found themselves lacking the substance they need to make any sort of impression. Garrett Klahn (Texas Is The Reason) and John Herguth (House & Parish) have been joined by Rival Schools’ Ian Love for their new project Atlantic/Pacific, with their début release ‘Meet Your New Love’ hitting the shelves October 26th.

The album opens with the title track ‘Meet Your New Love’; a fine example of the bands talents and capabilities, it starts off relatively slow and steady, however, the track culminates into something that is more familiar to a Boards of Canada record and is a really strong intro from start to finish.

Following on from this, ‘Some Weary Valentine’ is probably the best track on the album. There’s a really sweet bass-line in there and the ambience gets you feeling pretty chilled out! In fact, every time I listen to the album, I have to put that song on repeat about three or four times before I can carry on!

Tracks like ‘Patterns’, ‘The Inquisition’ and ‘One Of One’ continue the easy listening theme of the album. Some parts ambient, other parts experimental, it all makes for a pretty atmospheric sound. Whilst there isn’t anything particular breathtaking about them, they’re all noticeably great tracks and actually adopt a particularly distinctive sound from a lot of alternative groups out there at the moment; it’s quite a refreshing change of pace.

There are loads of elements to each of Atlantic/Pacific’s songs that make them a real treat to listen to; whether it’s a little piano part here or some ambient synth there, it all adds up to a pretty diverse blend of music.

Having said that, there is a lull close to the end of the album; songs such as ‘Shore To Shore’ and ‘The Latest’ seem to deviate so far away from the recognisable sound of the earlier tracks, I just had to skip past them after a couple of listens. Unfortunately the final track ‘Let Me Into Your Light’ follows in the same vane as the other two mentioned and doesn’t quite have the substance needed for a truly memorable ending.

With such high profile names tied to Atlantic/Pacific, it’s safe to say that there’s quite a bit of expectation riding on this debut. In all honesty, even though I do have some gripes about a couple of tracks, ‘Meet Your New Love’ ticks all the right boxes; great song-writing, intricate ambient compositions and a great sense of style all make this a thoroughly enjoyable record.

3/5

‘Meet Your New Love’ by Atlantic/Pacific is available October 26th through No Sleep Records.

Atlantic/Pacific on MySpace and Facebook.

Sandeep Dawett