Album Review: Dads “I’ll Be The Tornado”
Dads
I’ll Be The Tornado
6131 Records
review by Jacob Ray
Dads is an emo band out of Ann Arbor, Michigan. Not only did they put out a record last year that seemed to garner a lot of support from both fans and the media they were crowned “Kings of Emo” (or whatever) by Property of Zach. Their new album, “I’ll Be The Tornado” is out now on 6131 Records, and is sure to be featured in the “Top 10 Albums of 2014” post on many a Tumblr blog.
“Grand Edge, MI”
“Chewing Ghosts”
“The Romantic Ocean”
“Fake Knees”
“Sold Year”
“Transitions”
“Hold You Back”
“But”
“Sunburnt Jet Wings”
“Take Back Today”
“Only You”
My interest in emo as a genre starts with Samiam and Alkaline Trio and ends with Jets To Brazil and Cheap Girls. My interest in this seemingly unavoidable “emo revival” thing has been non-existent. Well Dads fucked that up for me with this record. When I first heard the opening track, I wasn’t completely sold, especially when whoever does vocals on that particular song went really high. Then about 40 seconds to a minute go by and that crescendo hit and I was into it. From the first song I could tell that:
A). This is an emo/indie record. Something I historically don’t really care for and
B). The lyrics have a more “grown-up” quality to them and they are going to actually experiment with tempo changes and stuff, so at least it won’t be a record where a whiny kid complains about bullshit while his band plays bland, mid-tempo chords for 45 minutes. And with that realization I was sold.
The second song, “Chewing Ghosts,” is a hooky masterpiece with a really fun, “dancey” drum beat and is probably the most consistently awesome song on the record, as far as replay value goes. This is followed by “The Romantic Ocean,” which has a big sound and reminds me of Explosions in the Sky a little bit. I am curious as to how these songs are live, because they are a two piece and from my understanding the bass is the instrument that gets left out when the play live. “Fake Knees,” slows it down a little bit, with some of the more intensely personal lyrics on the record, but they went a little high again with the vocals, which for whatever reason, is something I really don’t like with this band (probably the only thing I don’t like though).
The “punkiest” song on the record is “Sold Year,” which on the MP3 version is combined with, “Transitions,” however, on the physical version they are two separate tracks, and “Transitions,” doesn’t do much other than, well, transition from side A to side B. “You Hold Back,” has an infectious melody to it, despite having no real chorus (at least not lyrically) and if there was a song on this record where people would tear up a bit, I’d put down some money that the song would be, “But,” which is about a person whom the lyricists is enamored with, but can be there for all of the time, presumably because he’s touring around the country/ world playing music. “But,” has my favorite lyrics of the whole record. Dads are kind enough to lift us up with, “Sunburnt Jet Wings,” after they brought us down with, “But”. The louder, more upbeat songs on this record are all very well placed, which helps keep the record interesting, like I mentioned before.
I’ll Be The Tornado closes out with “Take Back Today”. I absolutely love how the guitar tones sound on this particular song, especially in the intro. I guess what starts slow, must end slow, as the final track is the seven minute, twenty one second long “Only You,” which does a well enough job bringing the record to a close, but won’t find itself played on its own, at least not by me.
I hope none of the above sounded too insincere or snarky, because I really do like this record. I liked it enough to actually go out and buy it, even though 6131 was generous enough to give us a promo copy (picture proof of my purchase will be below this paragraph. It’s a needle in a haystack for me with the genre, and I’ll Be The Tornado is a pretty rad needle. Well done Dads, well done.
About the Author
Jacob Ray , 22, Denver, CO PWV Role: Reviewer. Born and raised in Denver, this English school dropout now helps run a chain of restaurants. He likes writing for PWV because it helps him keep his writing skills from slipping away, in case he decides for some reason that suffering through college is worth it. A lover of all music that remains unmolested by auto-tune and bass drops, when not at work he can often be found at illegal Pete's, a record store or some bar. Twitter @jray5280
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