THIS IS A COPY, IS THIS A COPY?

Here we see Scraps Of Tape with their latest offering, "This Is A Copy, Is This A Copy?". And to clear things up, No. This is not a copy... at least not from their debut which had a personality of its own. This release sees them in the more traditional realms of the genre.

This is definitely a change from their previous album. You got to hand it to them, they didn't made a remake of their previous albums like some post-rock bands do ever so often. But the problem isn't trying to sound like their previous album, is sounding like other post-rock bands. This really isn't a problem if you like clean and simple post-rock that tickles yer fancy, but the debut had a personality that set it apart from other bands. Nonetheless there's still great music to check out on this album.

The music on this album is nice to listen to. It has many things enjoyable from the genre. They still have that great sense of melody they had back then in their debut and it sounds great without the lightning fast switch of dynamics. The best song on the album is "How Your Heart Gets Thrown" in which they channel all of the energy they didn't used in the first 4 songs to this one, so you know that you'll get a "wham!" from the first seconds of the album until the end. The vocals on this song is very eloquent and they add to the angry mood of the song. Luckily the album picks up some steam after that song and some of the songs feature interesting and even quirky brass sections like in "Vibrancy" and the end of " Since All The Birds Are Moving, Shouldn't We " which sounds very out of place in the album, but still good to now they don't take themselves very seriously. The same intensity of their debut is still present here as well and its there in most of the time (except for the first 4 songs). The singing is also better than in their debut and they have more songs with vocals too (my favorite being "Thirteenthousand").

While still not as memorable as their debut, this is still a great album to listen to. If you didn't enjoy the quick changes in dynamic of their first album then you'll enjoy this one more since it flows nicer and it still packs a punch ( it has more heavier moments than softer, but never menacing like, say, Russian Circle), but less unpredictable. They certainly polished out the edges on this one so it may be a good thing or a bad thing depending on your taste. Personally I enjoy their debut more so that's why I'm giving it a lower rating.