Cicero & The Orations – ‘Things That Endure’.
Cicero & The Orations – Goldens Bridge, New York, USA.
‘You want that sound you’ve been looking for? Then you’re in the right place.’
What was to become the Goldens Bridge, New York, based Cicero & The Orations formed in 2009, where a fusion of sounds from playful contemporary Indie Rock, reserved yet attitude laden Funk and a deep rooted Folk Rock sensibility slowly took shape via influences from the likes of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Wolfmother, Fleet Foxes and The Black Keys.
The aforementioned began to culminate and form a set of orations that only a mysterious presence by the name of Cicero could tame. The presence of course comprised by the collected life-force of the band themselves, has now produced the band’s debut full-length, Things That Endure.
\\Things That Endure//
The initial start to the album begins with a sullen bass-line, leaving you half expecting Punk-Rock or Grunge, before sombre layers of Post-Punk with a deep rumbling percussion guiding you before subsiding into deep layered almost Progressive Rock .
All this is quite the surpirse if you were based on the bands bio, expecting Indie-Rock.
With ‘Young Pt 1’ you get your playful Folk-infused Indie Rock for most the track before it begins to take a down-tempo, down-tuned route. ‘Truro’, although slower in tempo and considerably different in style, somehow doesn’t break the fluidity of the album.
‘Where will we go? Far away so we can stay…’
‘Kerouac’ takes on a similar tone but with an added complexity that by now is both normal and refreshingly deployed rather than simply banal. The complexities themselves hardly surprising when you see the amount of extra musicians involved in the album (see bandcamp).
‘Young Pt 2’ is close to its older sibling with its slow refrains and dulcet flutters between main verses, showcasing the whole albums tendency for tempo-changes within a single song, again without a loss of fluidity in-song or in-album.
‘Luce Rossa’ is slow and playful with its intermittent mildly distorted guitars and carries a somewhat quirky tone that you’d expect from the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Which is fitting as the lyrical content, as you may have noticed by now, carries a similar eroticism to the Chilis’ earlier material.
‘Summer’ is just past the half way point and thus far is the track that sticks out somewhat. I really wish I could say it breaks the fluidity of this album, but although it is somewhat standout, compositionally its as strong as the rest.
‘Autumn’ along with its namesake, calms things down further from the hot summers day to an autumn walk through the brown and orange. 2:11 – 2:30 boats a beautiful sequence which thankfully doesn’t fade when the vocals take up residence again.
The admiration of the opposite sex so crooned by vocalist Tim Bustle continues with ‘Lipstick’ but subsides for the instrumental ‘Opening Credits’, which itself leads to probably the most “classic” in the way of Indie Rock on the release with a throw-back to British Indie in the fist decade of the 2000’s. ‘Reel#2’.
The final foray is titled, ‘Lawrence’ and boasts a darker composition across the board, resulting in perhaps the best track on the album. The intense build up of the driven and aggressive (by this albums standard) guitars subsides at the half way point however and for me personally negated such a promising progression.
That’s not to say the track or album ends badly, rather briefly suffers its own genius with its progressive and ever changing genre cocktail. However, much like the plot of the lyricism, there is redemption for ‘Lawrence.’
‘The muddled notions sink to naught, rest and peace are coming soon’
You can find all things oratory in relation to an entity named Cicero below:
- For updates, head to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and their Official Website.
- For music, head to bandcamp and keep an eye on Spotify as that may be in the works.
#StayFresh
