Search - Serene :: Serene

An album to be played over and over again

09/18/2002

(4 out of 5 stars)

"When I initially listened to this cd, I thought to myself, "Oh, nice. Mellow. Simple. OK." Umm, yeah, it may seem nice & mellow and simple and OK on the first listen, but luckily I realized that I needed to give it another listen, and another, and another, and the more I played it, the more I kept discovering, like peeling layers and layers off an onion except this was a lot sweeter to the senses than an onion would be. It's the paradox of the multi-layered and multi-faceted simplicity.I think the band's name threw me off, and I initially listened for that peaceful easy feeling, and that's definitely on the album, so that's what I picked up at first. But I wasn't satisfied with that. So I paid closer attention in subsequent listens, and whaddaya know, these guys play rock 'n' roll! Still really beautiful, yes, but they do rock out. Thank goodness, because rock 'n' roll is important to me.The way I see it, Serene's got 3 things going for them. #1, the instrumentation is just lovely. Let's face it. There are a lot of instrumentals on this album. On average, there's a minute & a half instrumental intro to each song. That's pretty long for a 4-minute song. So you gotta think that the artist meant for the nonverbal parts to mean something. It's almost like the narrator is having a hard time expressing himself through words and it's only through meditating on his feelings and experiences musically that he is able to finally find the right words to convey his message halfway through the song. The musical interludes seem to convert heartfelt soundscapes into almost visual landscapes. Kind of reminds me of the Six Parts Seven, an awesome instrumental band out of Ohio. Also, none of the melodies are all that pop-hooky, except maybe the last two acoustic tracks. The lack of 'hook' actually makes the songs more genuine, one-of-a-kind and raw, in my opinion. Or maybe they're full of pop hooks and I wouldn't know a hook if it bit me on the nose. #2, the 3 voices heard on this album are each unique (2 male, one female), from frontman Ryan Beatty's hauntingly idealistic resonance to Sydney Rentz's ethereal clear melody to Jesse Sprinkle's weathered and desperate tone. Beatty who does the majority of the vocals is more versatile the more you listen to him. He can be straightforwardly soft and gentle, like on the first track's (a fallen angel) short (very short) vocal part, or intense and almost raucous like on beggars of the sea, or piningly sweet like on the last track (autumn). None of the singers employs vocal gymnastics that would impress the listener but this album is not so much about technical prowess as it is about conveying an impressionistic musical tapestry, which I think is done very competently.#3, the surreal minimalist tendencies of their lyrics set Serene's songs apart from your average indie rock/pop songs. However, unlike, say, My Bloody Valentine, where knowing exactly what words are being sung may not be so important, as few as the words may be that comprise many of Serene's songs, it's clear that the words that do make up the skeletal lyrics carry a lot of weight. If the words weren't that important, the band probably wouldn't have gone through the trouble of including them in the liner notes. Yeah, you gotta read the lyrics to understand what's being sung sometimes, but that forces you to commit the cerebral act of reading, which goes along nicely with what seems to me was some pretty cerebral songwriting. I'm not saying the lyrics aren't heartfelt; they are; they're obviously autobiographical for the most part. I'm just saying that the songwriter wrote intelligently. There's nothing wrong with using your brain as well as your heart in writing songs; you can still be 100% bona fide confessional. The overall effect of this type of writing is that the songs can either flash a series of images one after the other in the mind of the listener or paint one big picture over the course of the entire song. all of it though tells the simple story of boy meets girl-boy gets girl-things get messed up-boy loses girl. Beatty (who I'm assuming is the main songwriter) may lament throughout the album over not being 'the perfect boy' but something tells me the perfect boy would come up with really boring songs, unlike the ones offered on this album.If you enjoy music that grows on you over time like a solid long-term relationship, this may be an album you add to your collection for the long haul. Don't be so quick to judge the album on the first listen; give it time and numerous runs on the cd player, and I'm sure that the music will plant subtle seeds of pleasure that will grow and bear fruit time and time again."

Very serene

christopher | Layton, UTAH | 12/22/2002

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I saw these guys live with a total of six people in the crowd...I pity anyone who didn't see these guys. They have an incredible sound and it all fits so well. Although the cd sounded a bit better vocals-wise, I loved the live show. sounded great."