No clue what the name means, but who cares?

Jan 18, 2010 by Joshua    No Comments    Posted under: music, music short

Image courtesy subpop.com

Album: Keep Your Eyes Ahead

Artist: The Helio Sequence

Genre: indie rock

Sounds Like Maybe: The Walkmen, Peter Bjorn and John

Gateway Track: “You Can Come to Me”

The Helio Sequence‘s 2008 album, Keep Your Eyes Ahead, may make the duo sound like another keyboard-and-guitar Sub Pop indie group, and that is because it is. That said, the album shines with sincerity and a sort of boyish charm that is worth the listen.

The duo consists of Brandon Summers on vocals and guitar and Benjamin Weikel on drums and keyboard. Weikel was also the drummer for Modest Mouse during the release of their album Good News for People Who Love Bad News, and the sort of wall-of-sound percussion coverage comes out in many of this act’s songs.

The album has something of a carefree, sweetheart feel to it. Summers’ voice sails in arcs of emphasis overhead, reassuring and earnest in tone. Prior to releasing the album, he had injured his vocal cords, and the resulting change in sound that occurred during recovery has lent his voice a compelling depth of sound. His style of pushing out lines with a burst at the start of the phrase is reminiscent of Hamilton Leithauser of The Walkmen, the difference being that Summers is less rambunctious and out-of-control in his delivery. Still, most notably in “You Can Come to Me” (which features a sample from Super Mario Bros. 3), Summers’ vocals are solid.

The band breaks away from the poppy keyboard feel for a few tracks. The somber “Shed Your Love” has Summers singing softly to a lightly strummed guitar riff. The tune is minimal in sound but heavy in emotional impact. It is a clear contrast from the title track, “Keep Your Eyes Ahead”, which maintains a sense of urgency thanks to the steady percussion and staccato vocals.

For the last couple tracks, “Broken Afternoon” and “No Regrets”, Summers and Weikel shift back into the sort of folksy sound of “Shed Your Love”. The first sees the return of Summers and his soft guitar-picking, and the last song goes all-out with a combination of foot-stomping, hand-clapping, harmonica-riffing, and a scruffy-voiced country chorus. The group effectively shifts from pop to folk in style, managing to hit a number of inbetween levels in the process.

The lyrics add to the heartfelt nature of the album, though they do not often stand out on their own. Summers speaks mostly in vagueries, never getting into too much detail about the nature or meaning of each song. The intended feeling of each song is conveyed in the mix of words and sounds, but the words used are often repeated with little or no variation in each chorus. This consistency is not necessarily a drawback, as the music is the sort one would listen to not for the words but for the overall sound of it.

Check out the YouTube video below to hear “Shed Your Love”. Sit back, relax. Let the sound wash over you. Melt into the cushions of your seat. Contemplate an old flame. Shed your love.

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