reviews

In Stitches - S/t

posted by: Joost78 on 30 May 2010

Sometimes when I have to write a review, I start gathering the necessary background information before I listen to the CD. I also did that with this four song debut EP by In Stiches from Amsterdam. After reading that they cite bands like ALL and Jawbreaker as main influences, and that the line-up features current and former members of Beyond 93, the great Brat Pack and the heavily underrated All Under Age, my hopes were pretty high.

However, after listening to the CD I was really dissapointed at first. I liked the vocals quite a lot, the pop punk/post-punk songs all sounded solid and the performances were spotless, but somehow the songs just never seemed to catch fire. I figured that this EP might be one of those releases that just take a while to grow, so I listened to it five or six more times but remained very much unimpressed with the song material.

A week or two later I gave this EP a couple more spins and I noticed that this time, slowly but surely the songs finally started to sound better every time I listened to them. I noticed the clever bass lines in 'Good Morning', the grungy feel of 'In Stiches' became more and more atmospheric and the chorus hooks in 'Click' and 'Selling an Example' finally grew on me.

This EP isn't overwhelming, but it surely has it's subtle qualities. If you don't notice them right away, give it some time and they might show.

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