Big beats and grinding grooves assault us from every direction in “My Sweet Spot.” By contrast, “Something Out of Nothing” relishes the soft, gentle rhythm of a more conventional singer/songwriter sound. “Lean on In” sparkles, but not enough to distract us from the darkness of its lyrics, brought to us in a tightly-packaged serenade from the heart of a glowing arrangement. The glowing vocal prowess injects “Go Where You Find It” with a brittle harmony that is as fragile as the theme of its narrative. “Window Dressing” sways quite evenly at the onset of its daring dispatches only to transform into a postmodernity-tinged alternative ballad by the 30-second mark in the track.
URL: https://www.northoftomorrow.com/general-1
Whether they’re communicating through textured melodies in “Pray for Rain,” cutting vocalizations in “New October,” “We Were a Heart Away,” and its reprisal in “At First Blush,” spindly tones in “SuperExtraordinary,” or stated grooves in “Shakey Bones,” North of Tomorrow aren’t pulling any sonic punches in their new album Something Unexpected, a record that I think belongs on any credible music critic’s top ten list this March without debate.
Gut-wrenching emotion, heavenly harmonies, and pendulous rhythms come together to make a cocktail of unmistakable melodic might in Something Unexpected, but there’s scarcely an occasion in its tracklist on which we feel like North of Tomorrow is going out of its way to shock us with the substance of their poetic statements. After coming dangerously close to losing its main identity, this is a scene that sought to create a vivid work of art through LP that stops just short of progressivism while still experimenting with conceptual elements around every turn, and it couldn’t feel more right.
“It Could Have Been Me” bleeds right into “My Sweet Spot” much in the same way that “Pray for Rain” sets us up for the final bow of the band in “Something Out of Nothing”, which brings us full circle to where we first began with the potent “New October.” There’s a seamless fluidity between the songs, making the album sound more like one big story being told in various chapters instead of a mere assortment of potently evocative tracks. The influence of classic artists is all over the framework of Something Unexpected, but make no mistake about it – this record is North of Tomorrow’s and North of Tomorrow’s alone.
APPLE MUSIC: https://music.apple.com/us/album/something-unexpected/1636211436
I wasn’t aware of their music before getting introduced to this latest release just recently, but I must say that I am very interested in hearing more from this amazingly talented crew in the future. If this ended up being the last time that they were to get into the studio together, it would be a truly great shame not only for their scene but for contemporary alternative music in general; what North of Tomorrow imparts to us in these compositions goes well beyond what most ever would in helping audiences to not only understand the depth of their artistry but to feel the full scope of emotions that come with such a masterful execution. For me, this is a gold-standard release.
Colin Jordan, posted by Heather Savage
