Some Kind Of Illness – ‘Souls’.
Some Kind Of Illness – Bolton/Manchester, England, United Kingdom.
For our previous work on the band – Click Here.
Soaring high in the open sky well above Manchester, Bolton and beyond, Some Kind Of Illness’ Souls release leaves me floating on airs. Its mellow nuances are spacey and psychedelic while still having a cohesive tone which you are perfectly prepared for with the opening (almost) completely instrumental, ‘Cityscape Dreaming’.
In the song ‘Seattle’ I hear nods of The Smiths and Jesus and The Mary Chain in its smooth seductive timing and tuneful Robert Smith-like vocals.
The next is a great transition instrumental piece, very reminiscent of Nine Inch Nails, ‘Downward Spiral’. I appreciate the creepy feel as it drunkenly swoons into the dirgey ballad title track ‘Souls’.
(Editor’s Note – Something I noticed very early on with this band was the applicability their sound has to more instrumental and ambient music such as Post-Rock and how it crosses over well into their predominantly Indie sound. – MS)
They definitely took the ship to the Dark Side Of The Moon with this one. Its a little Pink in the Floyd if you get my drift, Water’s vocals and all and as it fades into the techno-groove number ‘Another World’, I’m blown away by the strange combinations of styles.
This track is straight out of 80’s New Wave – Echo & The Bunnymen for days. It’s still individually different in its own way though and leaves you feeling like the Goth-kid hidden in the shadows while all the popular kids have fun, hiding in Post-Punk gloom.
I must digress briefly and once again give props to Mr. Smith for being the Indie Rock God of the 20th Century.
The rest of the album has a lot of the same feel. An eclectic mix of chamber-pop and electronic melodies that dare to make you rethink what an Indie band can really be. I also have to admit that the music impresses me past the basic vocals.
Vocally and lyrically the album is solid for most part but I’d really like to hear the vocalist open up to a higher octave towards the end of his songs as I feel there wwas a lot of build-up and no real climax at times.
The soft solo work on the acoustic is perfectly fitting where necessary and the band taps along in sweet mournful time. Some Kind Of Illness are definitely a band to keep your eye on, and this second full-length is generally a good release all around.
One last point I feel should be made is that I also really liked the female-vocal accompaniment on a few of the songs, as it adds a real Western/Country twang to the mix which was for lack of a better word, killer in the amount it was used.
If you like Tom Waits, Iron & Wine, or The Cure, be sure to get infected by Some Kind Of Illness.
Find The band below:
- For updates, Facebook and Twitter.
- For this album and the band’s backcatalogue, head to bandcamp and iTunes.
- The band also have some material on SoundCloud for streaming.
- For videos, head to their Youtube Channel.
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