Album Review: 2:54 - 2:54

2:54
2:54
Rating: Meh

Irish sisters Colette and Hannah Thurlow make up 2:54, a band that skirts the line between Cure-like goth affectation, 4AD roster doom and gloom, and shoegaze shimmer. Produced by Rob Ellis (PJ Harvey) and mixed by Alan Moulder (Smashing Pumpkins, Nine Inch Nails), their debut 2:54 clicks off all the right boxes for me: dark and sinister guitar leads, swooning washes of shoegaze texture, and deep, haunted vocals. On paper, this record should be knocking it out of the park for me, but for some reason there is something holding me back from outright embracing it. Album opener "Revolving" starts out promisingly, ringing guitars buffer Colette's hushed vocals before a sweep of guitars swallows the track whole:



This promise, however, becomes immediately compromised when you begin to see that each song follows the same pattern, with little to no variation. Guitars slowly build, getting more layer as the track progresses, before cresting in waves and waves of shimmering guitar chords; and tracks rarely depart from the same 4/4 beat, which begins to drag the tracks into one another to where they are indistinguishable from each other. "You're Early," "Easy Undercover," and "A Salute" are so similar unless I was looking at my iPod for the song title, I couldn't tell them apart. Finally with "Scarlet" the tedium was momentarily broken. Using a more textural approach with their guitars, the sisters created a song bursting with tension and beauty.



Then it is right back to the 4/4 monotony with "Sugar" which blessedly flows into another more distinct track "Circuitry," whose guitars soar and moan around a throbbing bass line.



"Watcher" borrows from the Cure's use of treated guitars and could be a long-lost B-side, however, it still settles back into a listless groove.



2:54 were at least smart to include their first ever single "Creeping" as the closer to the album, gussying it up a bit with some cleaner production. The song still shows why there was a buzz to the band in the first place, with the guitars buzzing and sawing around Colette's dusky vocals.



2:54 have drawn some comparisons with their tour mates The xx and Warpaint, using similar stark guitar lines of the former and the sweeping grandeur of the latter. For some reason, those two bands are able to create more diversity in their tracks, overcoming any limitation with their setup. 2:54 seem to still be in the stage where they have found a "sound" they like, but aren't quite sure how to transform it and make it their own. For me, 2:54 is three great singles mixed in with a lot of filler. Thankfully, the three singles are brilliant enough to make me want to return to them again, hoping that they mix things up a bit in the future.

Rating Scale:

Chilfos: masterpiece; coolest thing I've heard in ages.

Woof Daddy: excellent; just a hair away from being a masterpiece.

Grrrr: very good; will definitely be considered for my top releases of the year.

Yeah Daddy Make Me Want It: good; definitely invites further listens and piques one's interest for more material.

Meh: not horrible, but certainly not great; could have either been polished, trimmed, or re-thought.

Jeez Lady: what the hell happened? Just plain bad. They should hang their heads in shame and be forced to listen to Lady Gaga ad nauseam as penance.

Tragicistani: so bad, armed villagers with pitchforks and torches should run the artist out of the country for inflicting this abomination on the human race.