SHREDnews

By: Ashley Pagano

Let me introduce you to The Whigs; a three piece rock band from Athens, Georgia. Despite their initial success on the live scene after forming back in 2002, the band – then made up of Parker Gispert, Julian Dorio, and Hank Sullivant (now replaced by Tim Deaux) -  waited three years to drop their first full length. An unfavourable experience with a major label early on in their career led to the trio independently releasing their first album Give ‘Em All A Fat Lip in late 2005 . In a truly ‘Do It Yourself’ manner the guys recorded the album in an empty frat house using equipment they’d bought from internet auction site Ebay. Five years on and The Whigs have just released their third album, In The Dark (03/16/10) this time with the support of current label, AKO Records.

Starting with “Hundred/ Million” the album begins. It’s a bit of an old school sound with some interesting lyrics to offer, however, the first song I heard lacked the catchy-ness factor, which is really important, especially for the album opener. The problem is there’s no hook to get stuck in your head, no part to even make you want to keep listening. Hoping the initial disappointment was just a bad start I ventured onto “Black Lotus” but found the same problem occuring once more. The songs seemed to blend right into each other, I hadn’t even realized that the track had changed.

Things started looking up when I reached the track “So Lonely”. It had some different riffs and chords but it was the drums that carried me through the song for the most part. Even the chorus was quite catchy, and it was a nice turnaround from how the album started.  I could only hope that they could keep up this good streak as the album continued. “Dying” was definitely another change up, and It definitely stood out from the other songs, which was promising. The beginning of the track reminded me of a song that you might hear playing during an old western movie; that famous point where the cowboys are about to shoot each other – “Draw!”. Luckily the song had winning qualitys such as the inviting harmonies and was probably the most notable track that the album had to offer.

“I Am For Real” immediately grabbed my attention right from the intro. It was unique, catchy, and lyrically impressive. The chorus kept me hooked and the beat was perfect, definitely a successful track. It was unfortunate that the band couldn’t keep up this impressive streak, ending on the anti-climax “Naked” which I found rather bit boring, and slightly creepy to be quite honest. After listening I wasn’t even sure how I really felt about the album as a whole. In the Dark has got some great tracks, but unfortunately there are just too many negative points that bring it down for me as a whole. There is obviously musical talent within the band, that is very apparent in select songs, but in the future the band need to keep the track quality consistent.

For Fans Of: The Features, The Killers, Modern Skirts

Overall Rating: 6/10

Recommended tracks: So Lonely, Dying, I Am For Real