Straylight Run - Prepare to Be Wrong EP

The title of Straylight Run’s new EP could be a caveat to fans’ assumptions, in addition to a thematic umbrella for the six songs it represents. Given bassist Shaun Cooper’s and frontman John Nolan’s pedigree as former members of Taking Back Sunday, it would make perfect sense to expect another album of relatively straight-up emo, much like their self-titled debut. However, motivated by the current state of affairs in Iraq, Nolan, Cooper, drummer Will Noon, and John’s sister Michelle (who, like her brother, also plays guitar, piano, and sings) assume the mantle of political dissidents instead. Weltschmerz is the operative word here, doled out by the bucketful in word and in lush instrumental languor. The harsh divide between what is and what the band thinks should be is everywhere, as is their emotional response, ranging from sorrow, anger, fear, powerlessness, to downright dejection. To better reflect these weightier themes, they’ve traded in their more traditional emo for a variety of sounds. The morose electronica of “I Don’t Want This Anymore” features Michelle threading gossamer vocals through burbling synthesizers and digitized drum beats; the melancholic pop of “It Never Gets Easier” highlights the growing animosity of the political divide; and the austere minimalism of “Later That Year” is the band’s reaction to the now infamous photographs of fallen servicemen at the Dover airbase. John and Michelle then share the mic on “A Slow Descent,” a stripped down piano piece fleshed out here and there with various electronic textures. A portrait of idealism in tatters, it tours their protagonist’s mind as they tour the country, caught in a Sisyphean cycle of meaningless performances and fruitless searching, culminating in the spiral of a piano ostinato as John belts out the inevitable “It didn’t mean anything!” The original material ends with “Hands in the Sky (Big Shot)”, its tolling guitars and ticking drumbeats creating a wonderfully murky atmosphere perfectly suited to the sense of creeping doom realized in the song’s climax, where John’s plaintive croon swells to a scream as the long-feared police state comes to pass. The EP concludes with a cover of Dylan’s “With God on Our Side,” in which John and Michelle take turns singing lead, with three songs from their debut added for good measure. The inclusion of the Dylan cover is a mistake, for while it dovetails well with the anti-war message of the other five songs, the band’s take sounds particularly uninspired. Also, while promising, “I Don’t Want This Anymore” and “Later That Year” have an unfinished quality to them, like there’s more to be said than just merely repeating a few choice lines. There’s a finger pointing puerility to the entire opening trio that harkens more to the adolescent emo of the band’s past than the more mature outlook foreshadowed by “A Slow Descent” and “Big Shot.” Regardless of their missteps though, you’ve got to applaud their ambition. The overall impression the album gives off, of the pessimism caused by a crisis in values, is a tantalizing one, even if it is incomplete. Whether they’re able to refine this raw musical potential into something more polished, however, still remains to be seen. [www.straylightrun.com]