Album Reviews

Trying
Spook Houses - Trying
3.0
 on
Saturday, August 25, 2012 - 00:00
submitted by
Laura

What started out as a duo back in 2010 grew into a quartet of New York slackers who have now released a throwback to the lo-fi bands of the nineties. Unfortunately it’s not very good.

You can pick up on the band’s influences easily enough. Built To Spill, Dinosaur Jr, Pavement,… it’s all there. But whereas those bands actually sounded like they didn’t care about anything, Spook Houses most of all sounds like a band that’s trying really hard not to care about anything. Especially the vocals are annoying as fuck. The guy sounds like he’s suffering from sleep deprivation and when he mumbles that he’s afraid to sleep in “Family Plot”, that’s actually the first time I believe him. Oh, and I’m pretty sure the extremely grating opener “Try Pt. 1 & Pt. 2” is some sort of test you have to sit through in order to be deemed cool enough to hear the rest of the album.

Get these guys on some uppers or better yet, get them a dose of emotions so at least they won’t sound like they’re stuck in a coma anymore.

Tom Dumarey
Tom Dumarey

Lacking the talent to actually play in a band, Tom decided he would write about bands instead. Turns out his writing skills are mediocre at best as well.