EP REVIEW: You’re Alive, But Not Living – Perfect Teeth

The last few weeks of the year are often the most difficult to get through and PERFECT TEETH’s debut EP is appropriately titled You’re Alive, But Not Living. Setting up a post-hardcore lens to gaze upon frontman Zak’s struggles with substance misuse at this time of year feels all the more poignant, as if it’s time to watch the world pass by as everyone else celebrates. 

If it wasn’t for the sensational guitar work, the type that bleeds into each other shoegaze style and overlaps into slightly indistinguishable melting pots of hazy mess, a lot of the EP’s lyricism would leave it feeling desolate and emotionally draining. Title track You’re Alive, But Not Living and It’s The Hope That Kills You really are the saviours from a musical point of view with their satisfying riffs that swell in all the right places with a throbbing pain ingrained in them from the EP’s subjects. But then in come Zak’s vocals; the title tracks sees him repeatedly sing its name for the chorus which results in a bland and slightly nasally delivery. 

Euphoria (A Love That Feels Like Home) is so close to being a quality listening experience, it’s filled with catharsis and hope amongst the rest of despair that consumes You’re Alive, But Not Living. If only the vocals were willing to step outside of the state of inertia, it needs the muscle to send the message out on a home run because it’s a difficult task to sit through anyone’s monotone vocals. 

On the surface, You’re Alive, But Not Living appears as if it could be one of the shiny new things coming out of emo, but in reality it’s like opening a frosty can of pop just for it to be warm and flat inside. It lacks the zing that it needs to separate it from the rest of the crowd. Great emo bands set themselves apart by having something that the rest lack; take HOME IS WHERE for example, they communicate through different lenses that have this visceral atmosphere to them whilst remaining in the realm of emo. PERFECT TEETH miss that mark in making their debut EP far too candid. You have to admire Zak for the courage it takes in being the sort of open book that he is in this EP though. Leeds is brimming with fresh musical talent and the rise in quality output over the past couple of years is intoxicating, but PERFECT TEETH should remain there whilst returning to the drawing board for now. 

Rating: 5/10

You’re Alive, But Not Living is set for release on December 15th via self-release.

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