Written
by Alonzo Evans, posted by blog admin
Rejectionist
Front are chasing their rock dream down one of the few avenues where roaring
hard rock guitar still seems to have some popularity – lodging, musically, some
form of protest about injustice in the modern world. The twelve songs on
Rejectionist Front’s second release Evolve aren’t overtly political, but there
are definitely humanist in the sense that they loudly and proudly campaign for
the rights of an individual in a world seeking to strip us of that individuality.
The fact that performers and writers with the iconic status of David Crosby,
Patti Smith, Joan Baez, and George Clinton have chosen to associate themselves
with this act is an indication of the growing respect they command thanks to
their commitment and talent. Their second album Evolve picks up the first album’s
mantle and carries it even further than before while still maintaining fidelity
to the band’s gripping base sound.
“Ride”
is representative of a side to the band’s musical character, but never all
encompassing. Michael Perlman’s vocal will definitely garner your attention,
but the band’s full performance is very formidable, particularly from guitarist
Lincoln Prout. Songs like this are comparatively rare; there’s a definite storm
the ramparts, call to arms quality surrounding the first song and later track “Reclaim”
and album single “Flush”. The bulk of the album’s material, however, can be a
little more neatly divided between chorus-focused and hard charging rock songs
like “All I Am”, “Savior”, “Sign”, and “Innocent” compared to more nuanced,
layered efforts like “All Is The Same”, “Hold Or Break”, “One Life”, and the
album closer “Inside of Me”. The straight forward rock on Evolve is always
underpinned by intelligent lyrical content and a multi-faceted vocal approach
that never fails the audience or band. The rhythm section of drummer Dave
Dawson and bass player Tony Tino demonstrates unexpected but entertaining flair
on those rock tracks and Prout’s varied guitar attack keep things fiery
throughout. Perlman works in a lot of nuance into his full throated rock bray
and the backing vocals from Prout and Tino come in at crucial moments.
The
more thoughtful moments on Evolve are largely driven by Lincoln Prout’s guitar
work that, instead of bulldozing listeners like he does on the predominantly rock
material, achieves its effects through accumulation and manifests a variety of
voices. “All Is The Same”, “One Life”, and “Inside of Me” are especially
notable – the atmospherics invoked by three instrumentalists are quite
impressive, particularly on the first and last of those tunes. “One Life”
conjures some of the anthemic qualities we hear in the first track, “Reclaim”,
and “Flush”, but the lyrics are rife with a level of imagery we don’t hear from
that trio of tunes. Rejectionist Front’s Evolve is a wicked smart and musically
astute journey with the track listing finessed in just the right way.
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