Album Review: April Art - Rodeo

We all know the taste of disappointment, that moment when your hopes are dashed in an instant, and your stomach falls into the depths where your soul was supposed to be. Some of us live there for most of our time, but I think it's safe to say all of us have felt it for at least a short spell. In music, that happens when a band you thought was going to be great turns out to be not bad, but average. Why average? Because there is nothing worse than having almost no reaction to something.

Anger isn't healthy, but it gets the blood pumping in the same way that love does. Apathy is the real killer, because that is when we can struggle to remember if we are human or not.

I'm exaggerating here, but disappointment is the feeling I got listening to April Art's new album. When they started this cycle with the single, "No Sorry", I was all-in. I absolutely loved the high-energy assault, especially Lisa-Marie's gravelly vocals. It was one of my favorite songs of last year, and the album went in bold print on my schedule when it was announced.

So what went wrong? Before anything else, let's start with the issue of the album as a format. The record clocks in at a short thirty-six minutes, which is becoming more and more normal. I wouldn't penalize them for the length if the record was as good as expected. In those thirty-six minutes, we get the aforementioned "Not Sorry", but we also get an acoustic version of the song. Yes, two of the eleven tracks on this record are the same song, which is a step too far for me. It isn't even a bonus track added at the end, it sits before the closer so it can't be avoided.

Those choices become more glaring as the record plays on, as the band delivers time and again. Some of the songs might go a bit far with breakdowns for my taste, also some modern glitchy and hip-hop bits, but each and every song is anchored with a huge sing-along chorus. Their knack for hooks is amazing here, and Lisa-Marie is exactly the voice I want to hear belting these numbers out. She won't be for everyone, but she hits the sweet spot of what I hear in my head when I imagine new strains of music.

We're in similar territory to Amaranthe, which lacks a defining term, but for our purposes can be distilled as ultra-heavy hyper-pop metal. You can hear what I mean better than I can say it. Amaranthe also put out an album this year, and while it was another fine entry that delivered on their trademarks, April Art's album is a more engaging version of that sound. When April Art gets heavy, you can feel the power of the guitars hitting you, and when the hooks come, Lisa-Marie's voice is able to scour away the sheen of our skin so those melodies can easily sink in.

That gets us back to the idea of disappointment. This album is disappointing because there is enough here for it to be one of the best albums of the year. There are also inherent flaws that probably keep it from doing so. To hear that potential falling short is exactly the sort of thing that has made this a year where I have spent far more time listening to old favorites as opposed to new music. The lower bar of nostalgia isn't a fair fight, but I can't control how the past lives on in the present.

What I can say is that April Art has made a record I'm hoping will overcome my initial feelings as I listen to it repeatedly between now and the time I choose the best albums of the year. If that happens, I will happily eat crow. But right now, I can only tell you how I feel in the moment, and that's tempted by the allure of a truly great album that was one or two slight changes away from being what we have.