Allen Epley, former frontman of Shiner and current main man of The Life and Times, has seen more than his fair share of personnel changes under his watch. Shiner's drummer was replaced before it recorded an album, and it set the tone for several more switches centering around singer/guitarist Epley and bassist Paul Malinowski of Season to Risk. When Season to Risk broke up, Shiner absorbed two more of its members to record The Egg, the band's fourth and best effort. The album struck an engaging balance between melody and slight experimentation, but soon after its release the band unceremoniously dissolved. The Life and Times has already changed some members between its debut EP and this, its first LP, but by working fast and sweeping up two local musicians (Eric Albert from Ring, Cicada on bass and Chris Metcalf of Stella Link on drums), Allen Epley has finally found a band that fits.
On Suburban Hymns, shoegaze-inspired guitars are neatly folded between heavy modern rock drumming, rhythms are toyed with, stretched, and collapsed on songs like "Muscle Cars" and "Skateland", and the band creates a wall of sound that moves in and evaporates like fog, leaving only keyboards and moogs behind. It's a new step for Epley that, for once, places mood and atmosphere ahead of the riffs.
The tradeoff is that mood takes precedence over hooks. There are catchy moments-- the winding melodies from the propulsive "Coat of Arms" and "Running Red Lights" and closing ballad "A Chorus of Crickets"-- but most songs, like "Muscle Cars" or the ironically-titled "Thrill Ride", are well-executed mood pieces. "Skateland" escapes the mire with a strong (if grunge-like) vocal performance and some subtle piano during the bridge, but subtle touches can become lost amongst the band's bluster. Ghostly falsetto floats throughout opener "My Last Hostage" and drifts above the propulsive "Coat of Arms" that follows, and the overpowering keyboards of "Mea Culpa" fade into the lonely moogs that open "A Chorus of Crickets", where we hear Epley's untreated voice for the first time. Despite the pessimistic title, it cant help but sound inspiring, a light ballad with just enough restraint.
Lyrics about drinking the ocean or "ice cubes in the sea" sound clumsy at first, but when taken together and included with song titles like "A Chorus of Crickets" and lines like "running with the bulls to the latest hit parade," an attitude emerges. Producer J. Robbins, who usually records emo and punk bands with sharp, clean production, consistently distorts Epley's voice while making the rest of the band sound like a sharpened jangle-spitting machine. It compliments Epley's voice well, but there's a thematic precedence for Robbins' choices.
Epley's moaning sounds heavy with resignation, and his voice floats above the band rather than with it. The guitars that play just behind the slow, galloping drums of "Skateland" sound like the three men of The Life and Times overwhelmed by the apathy of the world, playing fiercely to themselves with their back turned to the audience. The chemistry between the band's members is easy to hear, but it seems like a heavy shrug of the shoulders compared to the boundaries pushed during the last days of Shiner. Hopefully, Epley can keep The Life and Times together for a few more recordings, because it sounds like he has the right group of musicians to push his vision forward, if he wants to.
