This Providence – Our World’s Divorce / 2004 Rocketstar / 10 Tracks / http://www.thisprovidence.com / http://www.rocketstar.com / Reviewed 19 January 2005
Immediately noticeable with “Our World’s Divorce” are the multiple tempos and sounds attempted successfully by the band, allowing for them to cross genres like their contemporaries, Plain White T’s. Continuing through “Well Versed in the Ways of the World” and “Truth and Reconciliation”, This Providence assault their listeners through an intense set of vocals and tempestuous guitar-drum synchronicity virtually unknown in current music. Everything on “Divorce” is the cutting-edge in inoffensive power-pop, but This Providence is talented enough to emotionally involve their audience to the degree that they are eating out of the band’s hand. Seriously, by the time that a few track roll through, chances are that the kids in the band could be rapping the McDonald’s Big Mac song and the audience would STILL be listening. What is most striking about “Divorce” is the conservation of energy by This Providence; that is to say, even while a single bass line is active, the track feels as if it is filled to the brim with other instrumentation. There may be a few moments on “Divorce” where the Spartan veneer of the disc breaks down (as is painfully obvious at the end of “Best Wishes”), but the technical ability in which This Providence render the disc more than makes up for bits of weakness.
The sedate nature that wraps itself around the entirety of “Divorce” is the only conceivable fault that can be levied against this disc. On a track like “Certain Words In Uncertain Times”, one gets the feeling that they are not doing anything but going in circles – there is nothing in the way of a discernible climax, no rising action, and it can even be said that there is no purpose to the song. “Catching My Breath” is a misnomer; immediately following “Certain Words”, it is resumption of the spastic nature that made the rest of “Divorce” so compelling.
The chord progressions and arrangements found on “Divorce” are as inspiring and awesome as any found on the typical Who album, the vocals as smooth as Senses Fail, and yet, every song is imbued with a soul that is unmistakably This Providence. Rocketstar knows how to pick their bands (excepting the fact that Gatsby’s American Dream’s new disc was a turd), and This Providence is no different. This Providence cannot be pigeonholed; their abilities allow them to be a traditional rock band one second, an emo band the next. The one thing you can hone in on is that they are always working to create the same level of music that is found all the way through “Our Worlds Divorce”.
Top Tracks: Our Flag is White, Well Versed in the Ways of the World
Rating: 6.5 / 10