EP REVIEW: The Skeleton Years - In Memoriam
The Skeleton Years is an alternative rock/dark-wave/post-punk band consisting of members, one of which came from hardcore/post-rock bands such as Richard Collier, Sunday Drive, and Legarda. The Skeleton Years have been at it ever since in the early 2010’s and so far they have two releases under their belt (Both of them were released in 2013 and in 2014 respectively).
Based on the band’s background, their lead vocalist, Darwin (Richard Collier), almost sounded like the dude from Taking Back Sunday and the guy hasn’t written anything bad so far in his career. Nearly everything what he wrote ever since he was in his teens, left us wallowing in our rooms with his painful confessions about loss and isolation. His latest offspring which is The Skeleton Years, and along with their first release titled “Between Lunacy and You” was something that the post-punk scene needed at the time. Their second release “Pieces of Recovery” went to a more angular and more rhythm driven direction. Their third and latest release “In Memoriam” was their return to form, and that return was kind of the same form we got 3 or 4 years ago.
We begin the EP with the first track titled “Color Blind”. This song was something The Get Up Kids would record in their studio. It’s explosive but it doesn’t quite retain the band’s warm post-punk heart as it did in their first or second release. The second track “Hold Tight”, provides more emotional, tuned to a more melodic hardcore sound. The pace is still quick then it changes up slowly in the second half of the song. We can hear some twinkly guitars on the second half, that was a nice touch. It took me a while to like “Hold Tight”, as of this writing it took me by the 3rd listen to finally get a grip on their music. Now we go to the third track, “Killing Time”, a track that I didn’t really hold that much power even I heard this a couple of times now. Their performance in this track was sloppy and I got bored of Darwin’s ballad-y vocals pretty quickly. This track kinda sets the mediator of the EP and I’m hoping to catch up after this one. The fourth track “Do You Really” was the same-old Skeleton Years I’m used to hearing, nothing that special really. Their final track “Slow Motion” was an appropriate closer. So far this is my favorite Skeleton Years track. It had this long second half where you can hear the drum roll as Darwin sings about stuff happening too fast and he wishes to slow everything down. Finally, the last track did what it did. It sounded completely different from their past releases at the very least. I was really digging the pianos going in the last few seconds.
Overall, the entire EP was decent. “In Memoriam” had a balance where there were songs that were emotionally driving and there were songs that weren’t up to par with their previous releases. Those songs sounded like they had to rehash some of their older material and decided to change some chords a bit. Their latest release wasn’t really unique in their field but it did a fine job at keeping songs at a consistent pace. The Skeleton Years is a band that I would recommend to people who are fans of Taking Back Sunday, The Get Up Kids, and even New Found Glory. I wouldn’t listen to this EP again and again, it’s not that I would never come back to it or anything but it remains to be one of those projects where it should stay in their respective places in the genre. “In Memoriam” settles for an uneven set of songs that are part beautifully dark and part tedious.