The Envy Corps - Dwell

While The Envy Corps are by no means a bad band - as the musicianship here on ‘Dwell’ shows - the album is, for the majority, lacking in variety and often tunes.

The band appear to have been rather unsuccessfully, it seems, influenced by the more miserable British bands of late, notably Radiohead (the vocals are often an attempt at Thom Yorke’s infamous whine), Elbow and even Editors. Moreover, most of the album is comprised of deliberately epic piano and jangling guitars, key features of this particular brand of skyward-aimed indie.

It’s only when this formula is messed with that The Envy Corps come out on top: ‘99, 100’ has a beat that could almost be described as ‘danceable’, and a repeated refrain of the title. Closing track ‘You’d Look Good In Wings, Part II’, as well as having a rather wordy title manages to soar to an epic climax with crashing cymbals and vaguely apocalyptic guitars.

The best track on ‘Dwell’ is ‘Story Problem’, backed by a country beat and almost catchy, the wordless vocals fading to and from the fore, frontman Brandon Darner singing ‘you accused me of wearing movies in my eyes’. That the guitar work goes a bit U2 doesn’t stop this from becoming utterly ace.

Yet these factors are absent throughout most of the album, and there’s nothing to merit a great deal of appeal, just yet. Lyrics such as ‘I haven’t felt this good in a couple of hours’ (‘Keys To Good Living’) are an example of who The Envy Corps are aiming at, and seem all set to soundtrack the introspective moments of ‘indie’ boys across the waters.