Album Review: In Your Absence - Senses Fail
Post-hardcore veterans Senses Fail take their first stab at an acoustic record with In Your Absence. The five track EP shows the New Jersey natives slower side, a move from their latest effort Pull The Thorns From Your Heart (2015) that was some of their heaviest work yet.
The EP begins with the buoyant love song ‘Jets to Peru’. As the closest thing to a dance pop song that the band has ever written, the track’s repetitive melody is bright and ‘sun-shiny’ compared to their normal solemn tones. The songs “are loosely about my wife battle with Multiple Sclerosis and the thought of losing her prematurely,” stated vocalist Buddy Nielsen, and title track ‘In Your Absence’ more accurately illustrates this. Orchestral strings and piano support the down tempo soliloquy that is the most easily imaginable on the EP to be turned into a heavy post-hardcore song. ‘Death Bed’ follows this same ambiance as its predecessor, the melody like a lullaby “pulling us to sleep” with its rhythmic verses.
Final tracks ‘Family Tradition’ and ‘Lost and Found’ are acoustic alternatives from 2008’s Life is Not a Waiting Room and 2006’s Still Searching, respectively. The opening notes of the classic ‘Family Tradition’ are surprising as a Hawaiian vibe breaks through, but strangely work with the simple strumming in the background. ‘Lost and Found’ wasn’t a super heavy track to begin with and the acoustic rendition has the overall same tone as the original. Backed by a beautiful echo on the guitar, this version becomes less about the instrumental and more about the lyrics.
As their first acoustic effort, Senses Fail made a good outing with heartfelt and emotional tracks that are an easy listen for any time of the day.
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