AMERICAN GRAFFITI

Alright, so how about one more album requested to be reviewed. American Graffiti by Strawberry Girls, an interesting release from the instrumental Math rock group. This is their second studio album after their 2013 album, French Ghetto. This is actually the first time I have ever heard of this band, but they sounded neat, so I decided to give them a shot. I wondered a bit what their sound could've been like. Would they be more psychedelic and spacey, or something entirely different. Well I came to find out.

Every track on this album has a similar sound to each and flows into each other as if they were a part of one giant song, making this a little hard to rate each track as their own separate songs. So that's instead why we are acting as if it was something like Amarok by Mike Oldfield, or Light of Day, Day of Darkness by Green Carnation. Just one giant track. This is to save time and look at it in a new light that most might've not seen before.

So the album begins with a very cool sounding guitar and this persists with drumming, bass lines, and the lack of any vocals. This sorta sound persists through the album, only really changing to something more eclectic when need be. I feel like this leaves them room to try to keep a persistent sound while having room to outstretch their arms. My favorite example of this is the part called Betelguese. You can tell it still has a sort of cool midnight surf rock feel to it, but it shifts and turns to a more harder and sorta industrial sound, which is now the more defining sound afterwards. I feel like this album is definitely one where it grows and changes, evolution in a basic sense. Getting better and more eclectic over time.

While that is really good, I feel like the fact that it's both mostly instrumental and has a similar sound throughout the album really puts it at a disadvantage. I don't mind mostly instrumental albums, heck one of my favorite albums of all time, Tubular Bells, is an instrumental piece and it flows incredibly well without the need for vocals. The problem here is that all the songs feel the same, even when it gets more broader and changes up a bit. I like my instrumentals to feel big and expansive and while this album does have some of it, on a normal listen it's kinda unnoticeable to me. Not bashing on what these talented individuals can achieve, but I feel like they missed their mark a bit when composing this piece.

So, I liked this album, however it isn't the best. Some parts I cannot say I dislike but I cannot say I like it either. It's fine, but I feel it lacks anything eye catching really.