The third record from this Portland trio aims for the stars but, ultimately, the whole package comes off more as a series of passing curiosities than a cohesifve collection of carefully crafted songs.
That’s a shame, because these childhood friends clearly share an interesting musical language – one that blurs the lines between poppy ear candy and time-shifting math-rock.
The jazzy first section of “Say That You’ll Do It” is almost mesmerizing and the textured, Chavez-style guitar attack of tracks like “Forever Ago” works well.
Elsewhere, radio-hungry vocals turn ambitious songs into pop-rock templates or the trio means so much it’s hard to grab onto a melody worth humming or a refrain worth repeating. – Punk Planet, May/June 2007
