Music: The Motion Sick: The Truth Will Catch You, Just Wait...
Our Take
The Motion Sick is one of those bands that has been hyped by quite a few media outlets (including Spin) over the past year or two thanks to their ability to merge dreamy and slightly darker indie rock with a hint of alternative country. Building on this newfound popularity, the group has returned with their sophomore album The Truth Will Catch You, Just Wait… which finds them continuing the styles they established on their debut. And while there are some memorable songs, the album as a whole is a little underwhelming and tends to blend together all too often.
Although the songs on this album have a clear indie rock base, over top of this base the instrumentalists have added plenty of darker and dreamy tones to their arrangements as well. This might seem slightly contradictory as dreamy arrangements are often the exact opposite of darker ones, but what The Motion Sick has managed to do is write dark indie rock tracks that stick with similar sounds and stink listeners into their atmosphere, and then occasionally add in some lighter alt-country style melodies on the side. While this works well, it also has a negative effect on the band’s ability to have staying power. The Truth Will Catch You, Just Wait… may initially grab listeners but once it does it just kind sticks with similar styles and becomes repetitious. Combine this with the fact that this already short release ends with a cover song and a remix, and you have a release that is not quite as memorable as its predecessor.Vocalist Michael Epstein does give a noteworthy performance throughout the course of this album though, often moving between a more melancholy tone and a slightly more upbeat and hopeful one. At times his singing style reminds me of Billy Corgan, though it should be mentioned that this is because of the mood that Epstein’s voice gives the music and not due to his actual pitch (which is nowhere near Corgan’s higher range). The vocals will definitely be appealing to a wide variety of listeners, which should help The Motion Sick to at least live up to some of the hype that has been generated for them.
The Truth Will Catch You, Just Wait… is a decent album but is not necessarily one that will be able to captivate listeners enough to keep them coming back time and time again. I genuinely like some of the styles that The Motion Sick has experimented with up to this point, but they need to add a few more hooks into their music in order to bring listeners back from the spacey arrangements and ensure that their songs are remembered once they come to an end. There’s certainly still potential, but that potential has not been met quit yet.
http://www.themotionsick.com
Chris Dahlberg
February 22, 2009
