Album Reviews

Ridgewood, NJ’s Prawn impressed when they released “Kingfisher” back in 2014, a mathy emo masterpiece that came with all the bells and whistles. Or in Prawn’s case, all the strings and horns. On “Run”, their newest album, the band has stripped down its sound to something they can more easily recreate onstage. Doesn’t mean things sounds less epic though.

If you are into all things math rock, emo and indie with the occasional excursion into post-rock, you are going to get a kick out of “Run”. Things have gotten a bit more playful, melodic and direct, but guitars still swirl, spiral, twinkle and crash all over the place while they are being chased by complex, upbeat rhythms.

Opening track “Hunter” comes with Pavement-like moments (always a good thing), the rough-edged finale of “North Lynx” is badass, “Cricket In The Ward” can almost be described as catchy and the post-rock atmosphere of “Hawk In My Head” is captivating. And there are plenty more moments like it spread all over “Run”. Sounds good so far, right? Well, yeah.

But at the same time I can’t help but feel like there is too much of a good thing here. And I really do mean too much. Prawn have their sound down pat, but it’s a familiar sound and things start sounding alike pretty fast. Maybe we needed those strings and horns to kinda cover that up? Anyway, “Run” doesn’t disappoint, but it’s maybe better in small doses.

Track listing:

1. Hunter
2. Snake Oil Salesman
3. North Lynx
4. Cricket In The Yard
5. Hawk In My Head
6. Empty Hands
7. Short Stem
8. Rooftops
9. Leopard's Paw
10. Greyhound
11. Split Logs