
Recorded at the band’s home studio in New Orleans, Armistice is a heavily blended (dare I say watered down) concoction of Maroon-5-meets-The-Postal-Service-whine-pop. The record is full of distorted, multi-layered sounds that mix sort of well with Paul Meany’s Mr. Nice Guy vocals. But the songs lack cohesion, not to mention a true statement that stands out. Outside of “The Nerve” and, perhaps, “Burden”, the album’s bookends, the music is buried under Meany trying to be Adam Levine, which is certainly not a very nice thing.
“Our goal is to embarrass the first record, that’s what we’re trying to do here, and I think we’re on point to pull it off,” Meany says about Armistice. While such ambitions aren’t exactly Herculean, there are glimmers of promise emanating from these, at times, manic-weathered tunes. The band finds itself caught between the age-old rock band conundrum of trying to be accessible while also trying to preserve artistic vision. Mutemath’s first record was known for its post-rock experimentation, which is also certainly present here. But the attempts are mostly grating, like the worst kind of nouveau electronica. There is no harmony. Least of all in the disjointed vocals of Meany, who, like he sings on “Burden”, “just can’t hold it together.”
Closing the album by getting a little Jungian on us, Meany laments that “The devil is not the nature/That is around us, all around us/But the nature that is within us all.” While his lyrics are sound, the delivery is off. [By: Sean Phelan]
Rating: 2.5/5
Release Date: August 18, 2009



































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