Album Review: Motive Black - Auburn

In all my time as a critic, I do believe this album has had the longest gestational period. As an outside observer, I don't understand that at all. The band put out a first single almost three years ago that I absolutely loved. Then they disappeared in the midst of the pandemic for over a year, and when they did come back it was with a drip of singles that still didn't give us a date when the album was going to come along. So between the time Motive Black first made an impression, and now that I'm listening to their first album, so much life and music has happened that any enthusiasm I might have had has long since died out.

There is building hype, and there is dragging things out too far. With the successive singles getting less interesting as they came along, the time in between has been too much. At least for me. But nevertheless, I will give the album a chance, because I still hope that one song isn't everything they have to offer.

Before getting to the music, I was given cause for concern. The press release says the album features songs reworked by this group of musicians from singer Elana Justin's former band. If it has taken this long, and they didn't even have to write the entire album from scratch, it is not an encouraging sign.

"Broken" is still as good here as it ever was, but it winds up being a bit of an outlier on the record. "Lift Me Up" opens things off with some guest harsh vocals that portend something heavier and harder, and then "Bloodsport" veers into almost pop-punk territory with the way the chorus feels. Things swing right around again on "Caged", which has some of the heaviest riffs, and then an ethereal bridge that is trying to bring an almost spacey element into play. With the one syllable at a time chorus that comes along with it, the song is an odd little mashup of things I'm not sure work together.

But I think the biggest takeaway I have listening to the album is that the band's idea of what they want to be doesn't mesh with their talent. Elana has a good voice, but she doesn't have the right tone or power for the heavier sections of the record. When the songs tilt into their more traditional radio rock forms, as on the chorus of "Purge", everything falls into place. But when Elana is straining to sound as heavy as the guitars want to be, the best part of her vocal range gets swallowed up. Some of these might be good songs, but they don't all fit her voice as they should.

Look at "Cellophane" as an example. The song trades melody for a half-scream approach, and I don't think it works in the slightest. The song lacks a hook, and Elana's voice is far better suited for gritty singing than it is screaming. It's four minutes of trying to resist the urge to hit the 'skip' button. I do not always succeed.

So after three years, what we are given is an album with a few really good songs, and a lot of questionable decisions. In all this time, they weren't able to figure out what works best for them and tailor the songs to those strengths. Instead, we get an album that gets caught trying to be heavier than it should be, and the hooks suffer for it. I almost always prefer albums to singles, but this is one of those rare cases where I have to say I was happier listening to Motive Black one song at a time. They have moments of greatness, but they can't sustain it over a full-length.