Review - Common Children - The Inbetween Time

Whereas other Common Children albums are a collection of songs this one feels like a cohesive album that must be listened to in one sitting. With headphones. In the dark.

The Inbetween Time is a glorious mixture of melodic, fuzzy guitar rock and drifting, wandering space rock. The listener is one minute bathed in a psychedelic wash of unearthly soundscapes only to be brought roughly back to earth with a driving rhythm and crunchy guitars, a tendency that is at times appealing but also creates for an uneven listening experience. For instance, the album opens with an ethereal preface "Absence of Light" with lots of reverb and echoes, drawing the listener into a sedentary state before shifting into "Entertaining Angels" which is full of jangly, high-energy guitars… a sweet but rude awakening. With a photo inside showing more effects pedals and boxes than I've seen in some guitar stores, be prepared to hear a plethora of new sounds. Due to the many effects, this is definitely a headphone album, not to mention a guitar album and a studio/production album, all wrapped in good songwriting. "Celebrity Virtue" begins with a bubbling bass and calm verse vocals, vocals which become angry in the bridge and absolutely explode for the chorus, swirling amidst pleasantly distorted guitars and a caustic guitar solo. The title track is a six-minute instrumental adventure in deep space, a dizzying wash of spacey guitar tones floating in zero gravity and surrounded by rocketing comets. The music is a controlled cacophony, always on the edge of too much but always reigned in, similar to The Choir, very early Pink Floyd, and even perhaps Phish. The album as a whole has a theme of hope amidst the horrors of life, an uplifting quality that reminded me of Peter Gabriel's "Don't Give Up." One song whispers "How many time a day do you feel unhappiness? / How many times a night do you close your eyes?" while the final song plays sparse acoustic guitar against such naked lyrics as "You should know by now / It's gonna hurt like the first time / And this won't be the last time / Your heart comes crashing down." But such darkness is, like the Gabriel song, answered by a shaft of light, hope cutting through the darkness in a way that is neither false nor in genuine. For these current times, such a message is quite welcome.

This review first appeared in WhatzUp, October 2001.

Review - Common Children - Skywire

What a super-duper lovely album. I likes me some fuzzy rock music and this album rocks it out with the best of 'em. If you can't get the album, try to at least get the song "Hate"... it's a venomous expression of Romans 7:15.

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Have you ever purchased a new guitar multi-effects box or rack unit that has lots of preset sound combinations that sound really cool yet are so wigged-out that they could never possibly be used in any song not composed by John Cage? Yeah, me too. Common Children, a three-piece melodic modern guitar rock band from Nashville, have taken up this challenge with incredible results.

The aggressive "Throw Me Over" starts the show nicely with sizzling guitars and a spongy bass that anchors the song to keep it from dissipating in a fury of distortion. The song which first caught my attention is the explosive "Hate". Hints of Nirvana can be found in the volatile chorus where guitarist/vocalist Marc Byrd screams "I hate myself" above a growing din of feedback and noise that culminates this ode to self-loathing. The title track is more laid back, being pop enough for radio but eclectic enough to keep it interesting with flanged, distorted guitars rumbling behind a chorus of vocal harmonies.

The experimental "Dual Lens" opens with spacey, echoing guitars in an extended instrumental intro that gives way to acoustic guitars and vocals that shimmer into oblivion. Backing vocals by Riki Michele add a new timbre that proceeds a section of strained guitars and eerily calm nighttime silence. "Drought" is a bass-driven manifesto that grabs your gut and refuses to let go, taking you hostage through a solo section incorporating a mega-whacked guitar tone. In stark contrast is "Broken Smile", a simple, somber song of acoustic guitar, vocals and (later) strings and light percussion.

While more rock oriented and less experimental than their The Inbetween Time release, Skywire is an effective mixture of driving, distorted rock and edgy, psychedelic soundscapes. Of the twelve tracks, at least half blow the rusty hinges off your creative modern rock lovin' mind. The other six are merely good, which I guess is not a bad average in an industry that often puts out one good song surrounded by filler. With lyrics that are honest, raw and real combined with inventive, edgy, aggressive guitar-driven music, I know I'll be looking forward to the next release by Common Children.

This review first appeared in WhatzUp, July 2002.