Crime and Soda reflect The Poison Arrows‘ profound commitment to the craft. The band demonstrates an impressive range of influences and styles. With fifteen years of collaboration behind them, Adam Reach, Patrick Morris, and Justin Sinkovich have honed their musical telepathy to create an album that is both cohesive and diverse in its sound and themes. Their cleverly assembled combinations of post-punk, post-hardcore, post-rock, indie rock, experimental, and alternative will win the hearts and souls of even the pickiest fans of the abovementioned genres. It’s nearly mindblowing how they incorporated only the finest properties and applied them according to their taste. Therefore, perhaps Crime And Soda carry all these styles, but they don’t spoil the primary sonic direction of the album.
The tracks are layered and complex, featuring intricate polyrhythms, meticulous guitar work, and expertly crafted basslines. The lush soundscapes complement their keen sense of dynamics. At particular moments, they deliver sparse compositions where your listening apparatus will soak all the beautiful melodies, harmonies, and themes, but there are also challenging songs where The Poison Arrows burst with sheer power and aggression. The band sounds superb in both cases, and the entire Crime And Soda shine with brilliant ideas, clever arrangements, and exceptional musicianship. Their ability to seamlessly transform, transit, and adapt their sound to any situation, mood, and ambiance goes beyond comprehension so many times during the entire material. You’ll solely enjoy all those technically demanding, progressive, detailed leads, virtuosities, chord progressions, powerful riffs, equally complex basslines, and energetic rhythmic sequences based upon well-accentuated beats, breaks, fills, and other percussive acrobatics. They also paid a lot of attention to the vocal arrangements, so every number comes with a storytelling lyricism that will keep your attention to this album even more.
At times, Crime And Soda resemble the ambiance of all those exceptional post-hardcore or noise rock recordings unleashed during the nineties, but this album actually carries a superb sound that meets all the trends in contemporary music production. The Poison Arrows recorded their latest effort at Electrical Audio’s Studio A, mixed it with Brian Deck at Narwhal Studios, while Bob Weston mastered it at Chicago Mastering Service. You’ll hear even the tiniest details that these experienced musicians invested in this material. Their technical prowess alongside sound quality make Crime And Soda such a treat for listening apparatus, so this material will unquestionably appeal to anyone profoundly into the post-punk, post-hardcore, and indie. Solid Brass Records also proved they’re one of the best new record labels with their immense dedication to the craft. Like their previous releases, Crime And Soda comes in high-quality packaging, accompanied by a beautiful abstract cover artwork that perfectly suits exceptional sound. An opaque silver vinyl is another standout quality that makes this full-length even more enjoyable, and this particular variant perfectly matches the artwork. If collecting vinyl is something you dearly love, then I highly recommend picking up Crime And Soda. You won’t be disappointed. Head to Solid Brass Records for more information about ordering.
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