The October

...Bye Bye Beautiful

(Sparkgun)

Record Review by Marcel Feldmar

…Bye Bye Beautiful starts with a sound that just feels like music that I want to listen to. It’s definitely a throwback to the darker ‘80s – not goth, but more of a darkwave Britpop stargaze shimmer. Echo & The Bunnymen, The Church, Flock Of Seagulls… you know… that kind of shadowed but bright guitar strum and shine that brings up brilliant bits of light while the bass and the call of the vocals keep the shadows in full force. The October push that sound without sounding too much like just another retro band, though they do sometimes conjure up sonic visions of a much lusher Interpol, and there is danger in that when you try to avoid stepping too firmly in one place, you end up stepping somewhere else. There’s very little untouched ground left in music these days, so watch where you step, because you may start out having that nice melodic danceable echo delay guitar shiver, but if you don’t watch out, you might end up just another alternative band being played on bad FM stations. There’s a fine line between typical and interesting sometimes, and The October are still managing to find there way on the interesting side. Catchy hooks and newer post-punk melodics intertwine with the ache and longing of older UK gazers. While most of the songs move in around four minutes, the final track is a stretched out, almost seven minute Keane/Coldplay-feeling ballad that breaks down into a beautiful mess of noise and chaos before fading quietly into a place that leaves you wanting to just start the CD again. The intro is so perfect, the ending is so complete, it puts the whole thing into an almost perfect circle.