Day 3: Self Defense Family (End of a Year) - Try Me

This is cheating a little, since this album doesn't come out until next Tuesday, but finding things from the last little bit of December that I may not have heard yet is tough.  So, let's get cracking on 2014's releases:

Artist:  Self Defense Family (End of a Year)
Album:  Try Me
Source:  Spotify

Pre-listening Notes:  Prior to this, I have heard only their second LP, Sincerely.  I don't really remember too much of that album anymore, but if I think I remember liking it's whole mid 80's, DC post-hardcore, Revolution Summer, style they had going on.  Since then, they have put out anther album, and a bunch of ep's and singles.  They also changed their name somewhere in the middle of all those releases, from End of a Year to Self Defense Family.  They are essentially a band that falls somewhere between post-hardcore, punk, post-punk, and indie rock, leaning more towards the first couple sounds mentioned.  This seems to be on a ton of people's most anticipated albums of the year lists. 

Initial Reaction:  Vocals start off a little weak.  Not a rager, a little slow, kind of reminds me of mewithoutyou, but with a raspier voice.

Random Thoughts:  This is a much weaker sound than I remember the album, Sincerely, being.  The production on this doesn't sound all that great either.  This whole thing is kind of meh, it just seems to lack the passion that a lot of bands that make this style listenable have.  Looking real quick at the track listing, there is a 20 minute song coming, and the last two are 10 and 17 minute songs respectively.  This whole album seems to come in around 80 minutes total, so this is going to be a little broken up in the listening.  Okay, so I had to leave my house for a few hours yesterday and this is getting finished up the next day.  This song has a female singer, and I like her voice better.  I think this guy's voice reminds me of Rob Pennington from Endpoint and By the Grace of God.  Okay, nothing breaks down someone's focus on your record quite like a 21 minute spoken word track about your youth.  Okay, that was pretty awful, back to music.  This ends pretty horribly.   I have no idea why they thought putting 38 minutes of spoken word was a good idea.

Final Reaction:  This may end up on some people's end of the year lists, but it won't be on mine.  This is not living up to the hype.  I was going to give the music tracks of this album a 5.5, but the spoken word tracks really do this album a disservice so I'm dropping it down.

Final Grade:   3.5/10