It's been five years since of the release of In-Flight Safety's sophomore album, We Are An Empire, My Dear, an album that drew a large number of Coldplay comparisons and complaints about the band's sound being too ambitiously populist, without yet being popular enough. The two-piece have since scrapped a whole album's worth of material and built a new one around the "thousands" of conversations between band members John Mullane and Glen Nicholson. Touted as their most "adventurous and honest" album yet, one inspired by bands such as DIIV and Wild Nothing, you should probably mitigate your expectations before launching into Conversationalist.
We're still talking about a band whose music has been showcased on television programs such as Degrassi TNG, Rookie Blue and Vampire Diaries, not exactly the most highbrow of platforms. And while this third studio album from the Nova Scotia duo does not deliver on its promise, it does manage to deliver some perfectly enjoyable tracks. "Animals" is a great first single and album opener, as it accurately summarizes the whole full length: easy sing-along lyrics, simple and soaring guitar lines, and soothing '80s vocals. Conversationalist will do very little to dispel those early Coldplay comparisons, if anything, it'll reinforce them, along with comparisons to other popular indie rock bands such as Grizzly Bear. But if what they're looking for is widespread appeal, they could have done a lot worse than Conversationalist.
(Night Danger)We're still talking about a band whose music has been showcased on television programs such as Degrassi TNG, Rookie Blue and Vampire Diaries, not exactly the most highbrow of platforms. And while this third studio album from the Nova Scotia duo does not deliver on its promise, it does manage to deliver some perfectly enjoyable tracks. "Animals" is a great first single and album opener, as it accurately summarizes the whole full length: easy sing-along lyrics, simple and soaring guitar lines, and soothing '80s vocals. Conversationalist will do very little to dispel those early Coldplay comparisons, if anything, it'll reinforce them, along with comparisons to other popular indie rock bands such as Grizzly Bear. But if what they're looking for is widespread appeal, they could have done a lot worse than Conversationalist.
