Meeting Places, The - Find Yourself Along the Way

Words On Music
(WM12: 656605943022)
Release date: 09/02/2003
Genre: Rock

$10.20

1. Freeze Our Stares, 2. On Our Own, 3. See Through You, 4. Now I Know You Could Never Be The One, 5. Same Lies As Yesterday, 6. Blur The Line, 7. Wide Awake, 8. Where You Go, 9. Take To The Sun, 10. Turned Over

The Meeting Places' debut CD was recorded in Autumn, 2002 by Aaron Espinonza, the heralded musician [Earlimart] and producer [Elliott Smith, The Breeders, Folk Implosion]. While the album's elements and textures evoke the best of the early 1990s dream pop tradition (Slowdive, My Bloody Valentine, and Ride), singer Chase Harris' inimitable vocal delivery leads the quartet into memorable, unfamiliar sonic territory.

"Freeze Our Stares" launches the album with Scott McDonald's trademark thick, shimmered coatings of guitar resonance. Harris' cool, self-assured vocal melodies on "You Could Never Be the One" and "On Our Own" hint of vintage Jesus and Mary Chain. "See Through You" is a more casual, but no less poignant, excursion into more delicate melodic structures, recalling Souvlaki-era Slowdive. Dean Yoshihara's nimble drumming propels the buoyant "Wide Awake" and ushers "Same Lies As Yesterday" through to its soaring chorus. "Take to the Sun" is a three-act epic suggesting Spiritualized — leading with Harris' distant vocals, transitioning into Arthur Chan's bass-driven middle act, and ending with a noise-laden coda.

Find Yourself Along the Way escorts dream pop into its next phase — songs written with flair and tunefulness, enchantingly dressed in an echoed veneer.