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Amestory - S/T
(2005, Portia Records/Status Recordings)
Impressions on first plopping Amestory's self-titled, debut into the player? "Oh dear God. Not another Death Cab for Cutie clone." After approximately 1 minute 23 seconds? "Wait, that's kind of pretty and quite interesting." After the second track? "That was one pretty piano. Slide guitar is nice too." Third track? "Wow, are they working the tarantella into a pop ballad? That's pretty cool." While listening to the fourth track? "This is actually very complex." After the fourth track ends? "Oh dear God, this is REALLY their FIRST full length album? This is amazing!" The moral of this story? I should listen to more albums at least half way through.
For what seems like a simple, sleepy little pop album on the surface, Amestory's self titled debut long player has so many undercurrents running that it's hard to keep track of where they're dragging you. If, at first, you believe them to be another cookie cutter emo/pop outfit then you're not listening hard enough. This is some of the most dense, impeccably arranged music I've heard all year, and it's the freshman effort from a pop quartet from Thousand Oaks, California. Forget "saving rock and roll", these guys are out to save music itself by pushing those defining boundaries that separate indie rock from "legitimate" musicianship. You can do so many things with a single song, it just takes someone who cares enough to prove it. Simple, well placed words with complex music, you just can't beat it.
These songs have obviously been painstakingly tweeked, pined over, fiddled with and polished without losing the slightest bit of emotional gravity. Having only a split cd with Tim Wilson to their credit, not one but two labels were interested enough to back this release. One to press the thing and another to offer national distribution. If this is only the starting point I can only anticipate where Amestory is going. Sign me up for a fanclub already.
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