Quiet Loudly - Go Into The Light Smiling

Album review by KevW

There's a big difference between pure, desperate passion and hollow bluster. Take, for example, 'Born To Run', Springsteen had until then had a largely unsuccessful career and this was seen by him and his band as their one last chance. Either give it literally everything they've got and nail it or go back to the blue-collar lives they'd come from. Love it or hate it, you can hear the determination, desperation and the fire dripping from every pore of that record. Then take U2, a band who've made a career using engineered, artificial, orchestrated pomposity. It's made them millions and good luck to them, but I'd rather rip off my own eyelids than listen to their contrived bombast.

This second album from Brooklyn's Quiet Loudly begins with a brief intro before launching into the double-barrelled assault of 'Deleting People Is Easy' and 'It's Not The End Of The World'. Both of these songs share the frenzied feeling and resolve that actually comes from the heart. In short, this is no empty gesture. These guys mean it. You can hear that in the distraught vocal yelps and fervent guitar; this energy is real not fake. It may not be of such biblical proportions as 'Born To Run' but it hits the spot nonetheless. A calmer approach creeps in on much of what follows; 'Like Waiting' has a rockabilly swing and the pretty 'You Were The Leaves' is both beautiful and sad at the same time.

Just because the pace wanes it doesn't mean the quality does. 'Patsy On The Rocks' heads into psych-rock waters and 'My Trusted Betrayer' would make a decent indie-rock single. What you notice most on 'Go Into The Light Smiling' is that however inauspiciously a song begins, it's not long before they transform it into an attention grabber, and this is never more evident than on 'Be My Baby (Mama)'. The parting shots of the slow-burning epic 'Your Wedding, My Funeral' and 'Sometimes I Forget' sum things up neatly. These aren't generation defining monuments, nor are they million-selling anthems, they're thoroughly absorbing alternative rock tracks and, most importantly of all, they're played with the energy and vigour of a band who actually mean it.




Free download: 'It's Not The End Of The World'

Free download: 'Your Wedding, My Funeral'

Quiet Loudly's website

Stream or buy the album





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