ATP! Album Review: Eisley - Currents

This fourth album by Eisley (as in Mos Eisley, duh), is surreal in the best kind of way. The Texan quintet has the same flourish that makes it easy to love The Mars Volta, and it’s just as hypnotic. Currents is in some ways the perfect name for this record. In ‘Blue Fish’ especially, the rhythm hits like waves, and everything from the vocals down to the piano is like swimming into the ocean depths, except without the whole dying from lack of oxygen thing. That theme continues in a way that’s strikingly beautiful, for example, the soft but haunting ‘Drink the Water’ is enchanting in every way, from its samples, to its spine-tingling piano riff.

In a way this album pulls the best parts from several genres. Though it sounds more like electronic or even house as a whole, there’s a defining pop element and a strong base of rock. These, plus the obvious creative talent behind the music create a record that pulls you into the current from beginning to end and pulls you back in with barely enough time to take a breath. ‘Millstone’ perhaps demonstrates this genre melting pot the best. It’s more folk/pop than the rest of the album and yet it fits in just as well but still has the continuing motif of waves and feels like a natural extension of the album’s sound rather than a jarring disparity.

The record grows very comfortably into a more indie sound in the latter half, as if (to stretch the metaphor to its painful limit) emerging onto the shore, escaping the current’s pull. This gives way to the quick dance that is ‘Lost Enemies,’ a crash course into how to use staccato to amaze, the eerie but wonderful ‘The Night Comes’ and the extravagant ‘Shelter.’ The latter closes the album in almost operatic harmony. Simply put, it’s gorgeous.

5/5

Edward Strickson

Currents is out May 28th via Equal Vision Records.