The Vestiges – The Promised City

The Vestiges – The Promised City / 2004 Particle Accelerator Records / 5 Tracks / http://www.thevestiges.net / http://www.particleacceleratorrecords.com / Reviewed 03 February 2005

The beginning track on “The Promised City” is anemic, to say the least. Not to say that it is bad, but there should be some building up of dramatic tension, some snowball effect, and “Transatlantic” just mulls around the same place like a number of the early nineties alternative bands (Jellyfish) that The Vestiges recall. Produced by William Samuels (who has worked with Green Day in the past), ey has made sure that every facet of The Vestiges is shown, whether it is the bass of Andrew, the drumming by Jason, or the guitar and vocals of Andy and Lar. Finally moving into some semblance of punk (although, making a pit-stop at “Here Comes Your Man-era Pixies), The Vestiges “Passion and Compassion” is a nice middle ground between pop-punk and the earlier style of alternative rock that was shown most convincingly during the previous track. The logical continuation of Grave Dancers Union-era Soul Asylum, The Vestiges continue the power, pop-laced tracks of the latter without sacrificing the intense emotional involvement present in a track like Soul Asylum’s “Runaway Train”.

Rolling out hit after hit, “Love is So Dumb” contains the same high quality of innovative and solid arrangements that the previous tracks have made one expect from The Vestiges. The only conceivable weakness with the track is the formulaic drumming of Jason, resigning eir to nothing more that to fill and keep the time for the track. The keys on the penultimate track, “Brooklyn Rose” provides a nice addition to The Vestiges overall sound that makes one wonder exactly where it has been the entire track. None of the prior tracks sound as if they are missing anything, but apparently like Jello, there are always room for keyboard lines on a Vestiges track.

Finishing up The Promised City with “A Banner Year”, The Vestiges bring the disc to close with a track that seems oddly anti-climatic. The “Tuesday’s Gone”-like guitar tracks add a nice country-western feel to “A Banner Year”, but the vocals on the track seem almost insincere. The emotional investment of prior tracks is just not as present on this track as it has been previously, and it really provides the listening base with almost a cliffhanger ending. When The Vestiges release a full-length, will it be more like the first four tracks or the weaker “A Banner Year”. I would still give The Vestiges a chance based on the average fare on this disc.

Top Track: Passion and Compassion

Rating: 6.2/10