Night Birds – The Other Side Of Darkness (Grave Mistake Records)
Every other review of this album has relied on certain comparisons that are pretty much unavoidable, so I’ll just get them out of the way right now. Agent Orange, Dead Kennedys, Adolescents. There. Done. I didn’t want to do it, but it was going to come out eventually. This isn’t to say that Night Birds are derivative or uninspired – they’re actually a pretty killer overlaying of different subcultural tendencies that can be largely lackluster on their own. They haven’t tampered with their sound since any of their previous EP releases – each of which has possessed a rare consistency in its own right – but the songwriting and the quality of the performances underscore the fact that the band is becoming more comfortable as a unit. The varied elements that converge into the singular whole of their sound – hardcore’s speed, punk’s snotty vocals, surf rock’s melody – overlap more comfortably on The Other Side Of Darkness, with nothing sounding out of place or forced.
Night Birds – The Other Side Of Darkness (Grave Mistake Records)
Every other review of this album has relied on certain comparisons that are pretty much unavoidable, so I’ll just get them out of the way right now. Agent Orange, Dead Kennedys, Adolescents. There. Done. I didn’t want to do it, but it was going to come out eventually. This isn’t to say that Night Birds are derivative or uninspired – they’re actually a pretty killer overlaying of different subcultural tendencies that can be largely lackluster on their own. They haven’t tampered with their sound since any of their previous EP releases – each of which has possessed a rare consistency in its own right – but the songwriting and the quality of the performances underscore the fact that the band is becoming more comfortable as a unit. The varied elements that converge into the singular whole of their sound – hardcore’s speed, punk’s snotty vocals, surf rock’s melody – overlap more comfortably on The Other Side Of Darkness, with nothing sounding out of place or forced.
This isn’t to say it’s a comfortable listen exactly. One of the band’s interesting contrasts has been their use of overwhelmingly bleak lyrical subject matter as counterbalance to the uptempo catchiness of the music. Death, psychosis, revenge, narcotics, cheap sex, and the apocalypse all get their respective moment to shine (as they should on any worthwhile album), but these topics are presented with an unsettling ambivalence. Some of it’s unmistakably tongue-in-cheek (“Hoffman Lens” – a brisk, two-minute retelling of They Live – comes to mind), but the music’s irreverence does little to underscore the gravity of the majority of the lyrical content. But that’s part of the band’s appeal. It’s as easy to give the world’s atrocities and injustices a stern dressing down as it is to write some campy Misfits shtick bullshit, but to take the listener to a place as dark as Night Birds do and to make it sound fun is an accomplishment I haven’t heard many people achieve.
The only surprise in store for anybody familiar with Night Birds’ previous output is how consistently great The Other Side Of Darkness ended up being. Many bands can’t make the transition from good short-form releases to good full-lengths as gracefully as they have. What they do isn’t without precedent, but it’s handled so skillfully that it doesn’t really matter. Theirs is music that thrives on a confluence of ideas and sounds, continuously pushing outwards as the components become more thoroughly entwined with each other. It’s a rewarding listen, and hopefully Night Birds can continue the level of quality they’ve adhered to thusfar.
