 | School of Seven Bells |
Disconnect From Desire is the sophomore album from School of Seven Bells, a band that garnered quite a bit of positive attention from their debut album Alpinisms back in 2008. I didn’t really fully listen to or get into that record, so this was really my first full experience with the band’s material. The band primarily consists of two sisters, Alejandra and Claudia Deheza, and Benjamin Curtis. Their sound definitely trends very strongly into the dream-indie-pop variety, with some more electronic and more beat driven songs and elements than a lot of bands that dabble in that arena. While the band certainly creates some lush sonic imagery here and everything sounds well put together, the album as a whole just never quite connects with the listener enough to really drive home on what they are trying to do. The songs are good and it is well made, but it just doesn’t quite grab me.
The songs on this album to a large extent have very similar DNA and run a very similar course. Dreamy, echoey electronic backing with those choral vocals by the sisters in unison to create a very hazy and dreamy kind of sound. Nothing is pushed or forced on the listener and the band seems to really stay at a distance for a large part of the record. It is the style of songs and their kind of aloofness that makes it hard for me to really get into this record. As I said above, the songs and sounds here are quality, but they aren’t unique or edgy or different and they don’t really jump out at you. They kind of exist passively in the course of the album for you to try and approach them. Although I don’t necessarily think that a band needs to be in your face, this album just has a hard time getting traction for me because it feels too distant and too dreamy and remote to really be relatable.
There are some strong spots on the album. The opener, “Windstorm”, is not a magnificent track but it has a great style and sound to it that makes it really fun and interesting, and “Bye Bye Bye” towards the end of the album has a similar kind of off-beat flavor to it that I wish they could have found on more of the songs on the album. “Heart Is Strange” is probably the strongest of the kind of more beat driven dark-electronic kinds of songs they play with a lot on the album.
I think the album has moments where it works, but as a whole I think the album really fails to capture an energy and a spirit of the band that really sounds interesting and cool and intriguing to the listener. I have to fully admit that this was kind of the same reaction I had to their live show when I saw them at SXSW last year. I did like some of the songs I heard from their last album, but it came off a bit flat to me live and I feel like that is kind of how this record is as well. There are some nice songs here and they handle the dream electronic flavored pop genre with some solid songs, but the album just needs a little more oomph and push I feel like to really connect with the listener.
