I Love You But I've Chosen Darkness

I’ve always been more forgiving to bands with great names, naively and irrationally believing that on some level a band that could come up with an exceptional moniker would also have the insight and skill to craft music as equally atypical. I Love You But I’ve Chosen Darkness (ILYBICD), despite how much I might want to love a band with such a great name, fundamentally fail to inject any sense of urgency or excitement into the five songs on their debut release, opting instead to extrapolate its rigid Madchester-meets-American indie-rock sound over five likeminded tracks that all seem to explore the same middling ground. Produced by Spoon’s Britt Daniel, their eponymous EP falls somewhere between the more melodic guitar lines of fellow Austonians …And You Will Know Us by the Length of our Name and Interpol’s shared obsession with mid-tempo British post-punk, though both of these bands still have that extra spark that ILYBICD are struggling to find so early in their career. It’s not that the EP is totally vapid, however; "The Less You See” and "Your Worst is the Best” are both auspicious diamonds in the rough, yet remain virtually indistinguishable from the rest in terms of structure and timbre. It’s still early in this band’s career and who knows where the band might go on their upcoming full-length, so here’s to hoping they can one day grow into their fantastic name.