Label: Epictronic 2015
Review by: Urban "Wally" Wallstrom
Italian artists have often been expected to follow a certain kind of style and stereotype? It's borderline daft when some people still think of the heavy singing accent and the Eurovision spectacle? Kindly remove all those pictures and thoughts out of your head as Earthist quickly surged to the front of the Italo pack with their catchy and atmospheric modern arena rock debut album. They have all the important ingredients to make it as they feature great songs, powerful lead vocals, and something slightly different from the usual radio friendly sound.
Sure. There's a decent amount of the grand piano met edgy loud guitar sound ála The Killers, One Republic, Biffy Clyro, Editors. However, they add their own touch to the melodies and there's more variation and quirky moments on this record. For instance, the wicked "Jolly Roger (A Pirate's Tale)", nope, it's not Running Wild, but imagine if The Sparks started out as the band today instead of in the seventies. Excellent piano and bass arrangements, not to mention that these guys actually rock out from time to time.
Are opening tracks still important to your overall feeling towards albums? Earthist sadly miss the mark completely with "Miracle", it's easily their worst song and I'd go as far as saying: shouldn't have been included on their record in the first place. It's such a major downer and especially in comparison to all the great songs that awaits just around the corner. Track two, "Not Today", the proper start of the album and just the upbeat and uplifting track with a super catchy hook. "Sirens Song", the classy singer/songwriter styled piece with acoustic guitar work of the highest order and quirky melody. "The Astronaut", feature the killer hook ála the Killers met The Editors and it's one of those nearly perfect songs that should be played out loud from your roof top.
Remove the dodgy opener and "Brighter Later, not the best of tracks, and you'd still end up with ten numbers of fun mainstream rock with a twist.
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