Album Review - Arab Spring - Literature

You're on the go, you've got your player on shuffle and you suddenly uncover a song you hadn't heard before and you fall in love with it. Sound familiar? This happened to me (again for the 10,000th time) this morning, which got me writing this album review. The band I discovered this morning was Literature, and the quartet's debut album Arab Spring is just amazing in my perspective.

There's something so effortlessly pleasing about this band, originally from Austin, Texas. To some extent, I would even dare to dub their attempt at music as contemporarily "iconic". The band's style is a mash-up of the traditional power-pop / post-punk / punk sounds of classic bands such as the Buzzcocks, The Cure, even early blink-182 merged with the present-day indie-pop propensity of bands like Camera Obscura, Passion Pitt and Ringo Deathstar.

Composed of 10 infectious and singable pieces, Arab Spring is the bands first attempt at establishing themselves in this diverse world of listening, and they seem to have done it with a loud bang. Their upbeat and melodic style of music amps up to be something consequential and unquestionably catchy for the listener.

Arab Spring doesn't waste any time in teasing the listener into a complete hear, by delivering one jab after the other of good music to the ears. The record blasts off with a melodic and catchy mid-tempoed "14 Seconds", and from there on out, never ceases to deliver a good listening experience. Moving through mid-record you will encounter my personal favorite song, "Grifted", a piece that will grab your attention by its catchy, breakneck riffs and power-pop choruses. The band seemed eager to deliver a record that climaxes on a fusion of vox and guitar combos that when merged wail a bang of listening pleasure.

Literature makes it very obvious that the band's hooks, bridges, choruses and ear worm solos are its main assets, however, they seem to have a special card up their sleeve; rhythms. Place special attention to the rhythmic section and you'll realize that the drummer and bassist are constantly pushing the sounds to some pretty interesting directions, while the guitars melodically wail the listener away. The band really delivered a good album here as Arab Spring is an unceasing listen that thoroughly takes the listener through a quick and upbeat experience.

There's one downturn to the entire album, the fact that it only lasts 25 minutes, making the listening pleasure rather compact. To wrap things up, is definitely a band to keep an eye on, I know I will, and will keep you all posted on any new content from them. Their album is available for the price you wish to pay via band camp, which is never a bad deal. With that being said, I invite you to give Literature's Arab Spring a listen and let me know what you think in the comment section below.