30 May 2006 // A review by Miss_Jukebox
Candor is the intermittent light on the key to the
Rest Room. As the door opens, a rush of scent from candles sweeps through and the dim lighting draws in with magnetism. The new album from Recliner is written with precision and professionalism - an incredible achievement for their debut. It is almost hard to believe that the group only formed in 2004. The elegance will skim into your CD player on that relaxing Saturday at home. It is the ultimate sidekick for an unperturbed evening.
Recliner are a cocktail of many genres. They create their own alternative, smooth rock sound, one that is impressively crafted to compliment their seven piece’s style of performance. There is honesty in all of their songs. Perfection takes work and crafting, however this album which reaches some level of perfection has left no scars of concentrated mechanics, and allows the songs to solely flow to its audience - exactly what a good song should do. It truly reflects the night atmosphere that it was created in, and almost transports to another location.
Rest Room weaves romantically by way of Belinda Bradley’s serene vocals, glossed over with Darlene Te Young’s harmonies. Their voices are a perfect echo setting the scene for the rest of the band to reflect the shadowy atmosphere without flaw. There is an unproblematic rhythm throughout the ten tracks. This, and the fact that there is no moment in the album that flays without warning, lets the album respire in its simplicity. This does not mean the album falls into the predictable. The album actually speaks with the vulnerability of the modern world of love and life, with no concealment.
The first track
Ugly (He Says That He Loves You) is a strong introduction, and creeps in the general theme of the entire album. The songs saunter past the untainted, to the forbidden and the obsessive. But as melancholic as it seems, the gloom takes a weightless approach. Rather than launching into the depressive, it in fact permits the meaning of their music to be uplifting as it soothes more than it disconcerts.
Surround Me, with a harsher resonance, contrasts with a track such as
What She Wants which lightly blooms. The sweetness of
For You, a pleasant song and
Want To Love You, which is hauntingly gentle, round out the album with elegance.
Recliner have set themselves up with a solid future with this debut album. It is definitely on the way to being a ‘best of’ album for this year.
Rest Room which was released in the April of 2006 will be the glow in the amber light of a lamp warming up those bitter Winter nights.
-Janise