Artist: The Lovekill
Album: These Moments Are Momentum
Label: Astro Magnetic
Tracks: 10
Review By: Jacob Gehman

The Lovekill is trying really hard not to sound like lazy songwriters. This results in both moments that are compelling and awkward. Unlike a band trying to play it safe, the awkwardness is forgivable and cute. Kind of like the kid who sprouted up fast during the summer and now feels like he has to duck when entering classrooms.

Sonically The Lovekill remind me of Bear vs Shark. Their vocalists share a similar rasp to their voices that can be both tough and tender. The guitar tones are also fairly identical when Bear vs Shark is in rock-out mode. However, The Lovekill doesn’t utilize as wide of a palette off sound as Bear vs Shark does.

The result is an album that would probably work best as an ep. By the time track six rolls around listener fatigue starts setting in and it becomes a chore to avoid hitting the “stop” button. The Lovekill just steamrolls through song after song with the same all-out tone and atmosphere. Relief finally comes for tracks nine and ten for those who stick around that long as they sprinkle in other tones. Unfortunately, it is too little too late. If they had sprinkled those two tracks at different points it would have evened the album out to where listening through the whole thing would not be a test of patience.

Yet if you just look at each track individually, without the pressure of  trying to listen to the whole album the results are rather surprising. Just about every song can stand on it’s own as a pretty decent track. They do a lot of creative and interesting things in the background of songs that really encourage paying attention to the entire track. Indeed, with the exception of several duds, the appearance of most of these songs during a shuffle of iTunes would be very entertaining.

Cute? Ok, maybe not. However, I would much rather listen to a band like this who is trying to shake things up rather than just lethargically cranking out more songs that we’ve already heard. If they can work out the proper pacing of an album for future releases this could be a band to look out for. As is, however, The Lovekill will stand as a worthy purchase for fans of the genre.