FOR LONG TOMORROW

Toe's debut impressed me with its lovely mix of math rock's complexity with the twinkly guitars that can be found in Midwest emo, ultimately making an album that managed to be both frenetic, yet soothing. With this in mind, I went into For Long Tomorrow with high expectations, wondering what the band would do to further refine their sound. What I found was an album that felt like a step forward and a step back at the same time, creating an album that had more variety, largely thanks to the guest vocals utilised throughout, yet the album also feels as if it lacks that perfect contrast between 2 opposing feels that drew me into their debut so much, leaving the quality more or less the same to me.

Just like with their first album, Toe kick this one off with a track that begins sounding very glitchy and unusual before slowly revealing its sense of structure, before kicking into track 2, which is full of extremely tight instrumentation paired nicely with excellent drumming. This track is relatively short, but definitely sets up the album very nicely, being overall more mellow without being completely toothless, which is fairly representative of the album as a whole. After Image is one of my personal favourite moments here as a whole, the soft vocal melodies being nothing short of beautiful, made even better once the guitar begins following this same melody to create a burst of dense, yet lush greatness. This sense of variety is maintained by the energy present in track 4, the drumming being absolutely pinpoint while simultaneously being absolutely breakneck, which is made even more prominent once the electric guitars briefly kick in to increase the tempo significantly, making for a very dynamic and engaging track. Say It Ain't So takes the sound to an interesting place, sacrificing most of the complexity in favour of a simple, catchy riff backed by equally lovely vocals to create a more conventional song, which genuinely works quite well, given how its tone and atmosphere isn't a far cry from other tracks on the album.

Many of the other tracks tend to be somewhat more standard in the context of the band, with varying degrees of success, the 2 part track being one of my personal favourites based on the progression that can be seen between the 2, the latter being more chaotic in its composition, with the drumming suddenly becoming extremely high hat, providing a suitable change while still staying firmly within the confines of the album. My one big issue with this album stems from its final three tracks, at which point I feel that the band ran out of steam, with none of them having anywhere near the same inspiration for me as the rest, which genuinely weakens the overall experience significantly, knowing that it all just fizzles out at the end. These aren't necessarily bad by any means, simply lacking in anything to make them truly great, inoffensive across the board.

Overall, I feel relatively similar about this album as I do about Toe's first, that it's a lovely, mellow math rock album that begins to wear thin by the end. The relative lack of intensity this has compared to the debut is also a bit of a disappointment, but is balanced out nicely by the variety this album possesses, especially with the vocals on certain tracks really keeping things fresh. I honestly wouldn't recommend one of these albums to listen to first over the other, as both definitely have their strengths and weaknesses, but are overall great, making both options valid ones.

Best tracks: After Image, Track 4, Track 7 and 8

Weakest tracks: You Go, Our Next Movement, Long Tomorrow

Verdict: Wonderful twinkly math rock that is able to contain the complex heart of the genre while seamlessly blending it with lovely melody, overall a high quality album, despite is falling short by the end.