Local Reviews: I Hear Sirens

I Hear Sirens
Beyond the Sea, Beneath the Sky
Self-Released
Street: 12.15.09
I Hear Sirens = late-era Mogwai + M83 + Explosions in the Sky
E. H. Gombrich said, “To talk cleverly of art is not difficult, because the words critics use have been employed in so many different contexts that they have lost all precision.” So is writing a review about a post-rock record. What adjectives can be used that haven’t been read a thousand times? Words like brooding, cinematic, cathartic and swelling all do justice to the formulaic I Hear Sirens, but I have felt this record far more than I have critically listened to it. While it may be paint-by-numbers, the tremolo picked guitars, major chord riffing, swirling soundscapes, delicate piano lines and sell-all crescendos possess that throat-tightening near religious revelry associated with the genre. The result is expected, but nonetheless palpable.