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Icarus The Owl is a group of three guys from Portland, Oregon just out to make some tunes to please your ears. The band recently formed in January of 2009, but don’t let that fool you. These guys are not new to the music world. It’s more of a reformation then a new start. Icarus The Owl rose from the ashes of lead singer/guitarist, Joey Rubenstein and Drummer, Mark Haines’ former band Kill Your Ex. Joey and Mark along with Mike Black (bass) are huge fans of every form of melodic music and strive to create melodic sounds both with their vocals and guitars. I recently caught up with Joey Rubenstein via Myspace to ask him a little bit about the new album and the sound they create. Joey says it best…

“The Ethos to our sound is creating a technical, more progressive form of pop. Most of our music is written in an odd time signature, but we don’t just roll a dice and go ‘ah let’s play in this time signature’ It’s a very natural creation for us. We will write a part and then count out the meter after its written. We don’t limit our rhythmic possibilities to a 4/4 meter I guess you could say.”

This “odd time signature” creates a wonderful listening experience sure to please any fan of melodic music.

The album opens with the catchy tune, Running From Lacuna. This song is a great intro as it shows us right up front what this band is all about in terms of music. The music has that nice energizing sound that really helps the day move along. There is enough of a difference in sound between Running From Lacuna and Disposable Company Makes A Lonely Man that it proves right up front that this band doesn’t plan on making all their songs blend together into undistinguishable noise. It’s always nice to hear a band have a variety of sounds on an album. Tragedy Of The Commonsagain starts out strong and upbeat. The guitar seems to make a perfect musical backdrop to the vocals of this song. The song has a really nice driving sound that is repetitive but only enough to make it feel like a good friend as you listen to the song from beginning to end. I really enjoy the vocals to this song and would love to hear it performed live.

Game Of Jenga is a fun song. I like songs that reel from fast paced to gentle sounding and back again through out the song. I like the vocals a lot in this song. It’s a great one to sing along with at the top of your lungs while driving down the road. The song nicely flows into the next song, Invertebrate. The intro to Invertebrate feeds off the previous song but quickly speeds up to a nice “go crazy in the pit” type of song. The tempo of the entire song again infuses the body and soul with energy after a nice break of slower songs. And then a nice surprise, they can scream too! A band that can sing melodies and also flip a switch and turn on the scream always scores bonus points with me.

Yellow Bricks has great percussion. I really like the fast spurts of sound. The vocals remind me some what ofInvertebrate which is a very good thing. I really can not single out one favorite thing about this song. Really the whole song is amazingly wonderful.  My Grey Shun literally makes you want to spin around in circles in a madcap fashion. A song that makes you to want to dance even in the middle of the night while sitting at your computer must be doing something right. There are parts to thing song that seem some what repetitive, but the vocals counteract it perfectly. Every time the vocals kick in the melody seems to strengthen. Then as the vocals spin off the music again returns to the sound that makes you want to jump up and spin in circles. This song is defiantly in my top favorites of the album.

Overall I am very pleased with the album. At times the album reminds me of Chiodos with less screaming. It has defiantly earned a spot on my currently listening to selection of music. These guys love to tour and plan on beginning a new tour in Febuary with Lights Out Dancing. If you don’t own this album yet, do the smart thing and download it free from the link on the band’s Myspace as soon as you can. Then go see them on tour and support a great new band.

http://www.myspace.com/icarustheowl

For Fans Of: Chiodos, Mayday Parade, Madina Lake, Chasing Thrill, Hello Danger

Top tracks to listen to: Running From Lacuna, Invertebrate, Yellow Bricks, My Grey Shun

Rating: 8/10

Track list:

1.    Running From Lacuna

2.    The Extortionist

3.    Disposable Company Makes A Lonely Man

4.    La Charlière

5.    Esophagus

6.    The Man Who Cried Wolf

7.    Tragedy Of The Commons

8.    Game Of Jenga

9.    Invertebrate

10. Igloo

11.  Yellow Bricks

12.  It’s A Good Thing You’re Loyal

13.  My Grey Shun

14. Three Week Break