ALBUM REVIEW: You Make Everything Disappear – Trade Wind

You Make Everything Disappear is the debut album from super-group TRADE WIND.  The band is made up of Jesse Barnett from STICK TO YOUR GUNS and Tom Williams of STRAY FROM THE PATH, along with Andrew McEnany (STRUCTURES) and Randy LeBoeuf and while many are familiar with the hardcore tunes from the members’ other bands, this is a softer, more melodic post hardcore output.

I Hope I Don’t Wake Up comes in with a nice build up, a very solid riff that continues throughout the track. Lyrically, it’s deep and angsty, layered through the highs and lows of the song. It’s not the most adventurous, but as an opening song it hits you in all the right places.

Next is the song Lowest Form, which follows in a similar path. However, this is a little more sedate to begin, and all the better in the lead up to the punch of it. There’s a groove, a pattern that builds and maintains an intrigue, more drum and bass feeling, with soft vocals from Randy. Effectually its all tension, a constant riff, little fills changing things up while the strings flow in and out, all the while the knowledge that something bigger is coming makes for a beautifully arranged track. Tatiana (I Miss You So Much) is more a call out the traditional end of mellowed out, post hardcore love song. It’s inoffensive and very sweet, but once again feels like many songs the likes of any indie/alto band. Perhaps one to while away a moment on a hazy afternoon.

Fourth track in the line-up Radio Songs becomes something of a love letter to the sorrow and anger of Jesse Barnett‘s breakup. While this is all well and good, to base an album around this sort of theme can be problematic. As a therapeutic means of coping with that breakdown, and to explore a more subdued tone than the member’s other bands other genres, it might be more interesting to have a little more range between the tracks.

Drummer Andrew McEnany (STRUCTURES) and bassist Randy LeBoeuf, next to Barnett and Tom Williams, feel like in places they don’t really have much to do, and it’s a shame because this line-up could make some stonking tunes. In fairness, that’s obviously not the kind of vibe they want to be producing, but it’s a shame nonetheless. Grey Light is much in the time, a slow slumber of a song, a warm blanket to shade you from the sadness. It’s cute, much like the kind of track BON IVER or OH WONDER might put out.

Rare brings back a little bite into the sorrowful tone, more to chew on vocally and rhythmically. It’s not a song full of self-pity alone, it’s more aggressive, more engaged in what’s going on from the listeners’ perspective. It’s a little more sick of things, like it’s running out of patience and more menacing for it. Penultimate track Untitled gets back to is gloomy roots, this time with purely keys. This album is essentially a lot of songs about wanting someone to stay and not wanting to go. While many will find solace in this, it’s hard not to want something with a little more identity than this fundamentally generic offering.

Je T’aimerais Toujours is more atmospheric than what’s gone before, as oppose to the occasionally meandering tunes, however it’s still definitely like something from an Indie film OST. There’s a charm to it, but the soppy repeat of “I will always love you”, no matter how romantic, is still hard to stomach over thirty minutes of unrelenting mush. It’s a quiet patter out for You Make Everything Disappear and while that feeling of comfort and loss stays with you long after the final note, you can’t help but wonder. Was there not a more full-bodied album in here?

This is post-hardcore through and through. A step out of the scene the band-mates usually dominate and instead overwhelm with downheartedness. While many areas are beautifully put together, there’s nothing to pull you up, no accepted self-assurement, to bring you out of this sadness. Those looking for work similar to what has been created before might want to avoid, while those looking for somewhere to drown themselves in after some emotional turmoil, this should please.

Rating: 5/10

You Make Everything Disappear is set for release in the UK on October 7th via End Hits Records.

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