CD REVIEW: Aisles – Something True, Something New, Something Out of the Ordinary

SOMETHING TRUE, SOMETHING NEW, SOMETHING OUT OF THE ORDINARY
Aisles

Aisles debut album, Something True, Something New, Something Out of the Ordinary, has a raw and unfinished quality to it. There’s plenty of acoustic and vocal harmony. You get an image of a hunched man wailing with soul into the microphone at a clichéd smoky bar with comrades dutifully nodding along to the beats.

There is a slight bit of repetitiveness to the work, but it mostly makes you practice your muscle flexes, acting like this super-charged singer with your jaw open really wide, your eyes screwed shut. While a bit creepy, the album also manages to be energetic, particularly on track “Beautiful|Red”, which is my personal favorite on the album. A bit ballad-y in some patches and plain lounge-y in others, it’s not bad overall, but I was hoping for a tad bit more magic. The newness and uniqueness is not so apparent. Good work, Aisles. But let’s face it, you could do much better.
-Tanishka Kundu