Thursday, April 12, 2007

The Chariot- The Fiancee

Singer Josh Scogin, formerly of Norma Jean has left one sour taste in all of our mouths ever since leaving the band many years ago. A few years since, Scogin's new band The Chariot releases their debut, one of the worst produced records put out on SolidState in the last 5 years i've ever heard.
Fast forward about a year ago, the band releases their favorite songs from that CD, re-recorded, and gave us something more listenable. The problem with this was that the recordings were much more pinpoint, and crisp sounding. Why is this a problem you ask? By doing so, many critics, and fans understand that The Chariot are simply not that talented.
The Chariot's second full length The Fiancee seems to be a progression in many different reasons. The band features a COMPLETELY different line-up from the first record, and the loss of EVERY musician in the band other than Scogin. However, even though the addition of completely new muscians, the music pretty much is the same.
Forever and all ways The Chariot will leave the same impression to me. The Chariot is The Chariot, and they will always have a potential. Unfortunatly, in my opinion, The Chariot has reached the fullest of their potential with this record.
With that being said, this IS a good record, and is more thought out. I would have liked to see quite a bit more of evolution in the music outside of long drawn out notes that sound like dying animals, strange feedback, and 4/4 timing.
The downside of The Chariot, is that they try to cover up the simplicity of their music, with awkward noise, and a bunch of little simple parts. My suggestion, is to stop thinking this band is technical and listen to bands like Spitfire, and Scarlet.

FINAL GRADE: B

1 comment:

Melanie said...

Despite what you may think of the Chariot, I've seen them play live and they have some of the best stage presence out there. That's not even mentioning their innovative lyrics. I definitely agree they could use some work on song composition and chord progression but the potential is there. They just need a little time.