Posted on: August 21, 2010 Posted by: James McQuiston Comments: 0

I wanted to say that what The Mall did on their “Emergency At The Everyday” was create yet another dance-punk act for all the scene kids to drool over. While there is still a lotr of dance-punk present in The Mall’s act, there are hints of both Men’s Recovery Project and even a little bit of Agoraphobic Nosebleed. The synthesizers that play such a major role during the band’s “Acrid” mix well, and play a nice contrast to, the screamed out vocals that are so commonplace during the entirety of “Emergency At The Everyday”. While it is true that each of the tracks on this disc are short, there is not as much in the way of differentiation present on The Mall’s tracks to keep individuals thoroughly entertained throughout.

It is only during “Define Migration” that The Mall begins to change their style up a little bit, with move of a Franz Ferdinand approach being dominant during the slower tempo of the track. To move into different styles is absolutely essential for The Mall to do at this point of the disc, and that is what they do. The great thing about “Emergency At The Everyday” is that every track on the disc hovers at around the minute and a half mark or ends sooner. This means that even if the band has painted themselves into a rut, they will be able to bail out soon after with only the slightest bit of ill effects. While the band does beak free of their framework a few times on their disc, this should really be done more during the disc’s thirteen cuts.

As a track like “Grand Canyon” moves on, I started to get the feeling that I had heard this track before. Even though there is a dreamy, almost Radiohead style present in the instrumentation on this track, some additional approaches would have been nice. There is some hope when the band moves into “A Question of Balance”, which has a sped-up indie feel into it before breaking down into a catchy instrumental track. The presence of more tracks along the line of “A Question Of Balance” would increase the worth of “Emergency At The Everyday” considerably in my eyes; here’s to hoping that The Mall would be able to blend up styles and approaches more for their follow up album to this one. Check their next album out and see if there has been any evolution.

Top Tracks: A Question of Balance, The Body Electric

Rating: 4.7/10

The Mall – Emergency At The Everyday / 2006 Self / 13 Tracks / http://www.themallthemall.com / Reviewed 23 January 2007

[JMcQ]

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