ALBUM REVIEW: Piecing It Together – Free Throw
When artists say they’re piecing it all together, it could mean a number of possibilities and outcomes. Some could be venturing into uncharted territories, sewing together the sounds and stories of their travels to make something unique. Some could be pulling together years worth of work into a tapestry of soundscapes that make the world stop and stare at something masterful. Nashville’s FREE THROW piece together the patchwork blanket your grandma gifts you every other Christmas – it’s the same thing you’ve seen a thousand times, but it’s the thought that counts, right?
Honestly, we’re not so sure it does. Four albums in and their fixated flirtation with pushing themselves away from the pigeonholing emo bands are all too often bogged down by has brought them to their knees. A little like reverse psychology, Piecing It Together is the sound of a band building a bridge between themselves and the best bits of the bands they’d like to be in the hope that like spaghetti on the wall, it’ll stick.
If you’re looking for a primer, imagine NECK DEEP, PUP, and THE MENZINGERS made a supergroup that sounded like they were slurping up the syrupy sloppy seconds of last night’s soup. Now listen to Piecing It Together by FREE THROW; you can taste every track like it’s a spoonful of the exact same soup. As if they’ve simply listened to all of the above on repeat for weeks and churned out an album of covers that aren’t actually covers. Everything here is original, but you’ll leave feeling like you’ve heard it all before.
The Grass Isn’t Greener might as well be the sequel to GREEN DAY’s Brain Stew, taking its throbbing, thick guitar line and watering it down so the diehards don’t moan. Worry Seed sounds like PUP vocalist Stefan Babcock vomited their harsh vocals all over Life’s Not Out To Get You-era NECK DEEP. Down & Out sounds like a B-side to NECK DEEP’s The Peace & The Panic, glittery pop-punk guitars playfully picking around introspective lyrics that lament the little things in life. It’s not bad, but it’s nothing you’ve not heard a thousand times before.
In the few and far between bursts of originality, they miss more than they hit. The closing trio of Ghost In The Routine, Equilibrium, and Dawn Of A New Day feels like a strikeout in the ninth inning; the former finds itself jumping into the jangle-pop jitters of indie-emo that offers a level of quiet, albeit it lacklustre, restraint, whilst the latter is a five-minute foray into stripped-back pop-punk aesthetics that packs the punch of heartland rock. Often or not, it feels like they’re onto something, they’re simply missing whatever that something actually is that elevates the bands they’re trying so hard to sound like.
For all of its flaws and its faults, Piecing It Together isn’t actually a bad album, it’s just a bit of a boring one. There are fleeting moments that feel like glittering, glimmers of hope for a band still finding their footing. Guitarists Lawrence Warner and Jake Hughes deliver career-best work, most notably on the magical jingle-jangle of Trust Falls opening riffs. Whilst vocalist Cory Castro’s lyrics are the same quarter-life crisis material you’ve heard most bands of their ilk belt out, they are a cut above the rest with their colourful, creative imagery. Ironically, it’s all a little bit self-prophesying on an album that sounds like they’ve burned out that they sing “I swear that I’m working, to not be scared my candle’s wick has burned out.”
Piecing It Together isn’t a bad album. FREE THROW isn’t a bad band. They’re just the sound of yet another band soaking up the scene they’re in like a sponge in the hope they’ll swim into the slipstream of the big boys’ pond.
Rating: 6/10
Piecing It Together is out now via Triple Crown Records.
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