Sunday, May 13, 2012

Review: Herff Jones "War-Torn"




This quintet credits duende—a term I just learned from writing this review, it can be defined loosely as soul, thanks Wikipedia—as the origin of their songs. Herff Jones have recently put together a flavorful collection of acoustic and electric balanced tunes on an ep titled “War-Torn”.



Upon listening to HerffJones, the band’s dilemma of fitting into a genre became apparent. The band hesitates to define themselves as rock artists as their music is a little too somber for the rippin’ riffs of a rock artist. They settle by placing “Alternative Rock?” into of the genre column on their facebook. Regardless of what genre they are, War-Torn is a great EP for any Homo sapien, even your grandmother.

The most outstanding aspect, sonically speaking, of War-Torn is the pure talent of both singers, Joey Hilbert and Blair Smith. I can’t recall a band with such perfectly complimenting male and female vocals. After hearing Joey and Blair sing the wandering lyrics, “Holy ghost, coast to coast//a space cowboy on the run and he’s taking notes//list the names, they’re all the same” I know exactly why it’s meant to be. With “Big Foot” on replay, their voices seem to come together to provide me with a warm blanket of sound, can I have some warm milk too?




If I had to describe Herff Jones’ War-Torn, it would be songs to comfort you while hitchhiking your way across the country. The band is a fusion of Conor Oberst’s Mystic Valley Band and Mute Math. The sounds of Herff Jones are punchy and bright, dynamic yet folk induced. Give the EP a spin, see how you would classify it and either way, you won’t be disappointed. I will leave you with my favorite line on the EP from the track “Well, Oh Well”, “I don’t ever think I’ll find what I’m looking for//better or worse//it’s this curse that I’m moving towards”.


3 comments:

Anonymous said...

My favorite thing about this band is that the musical artists exhibit the same amount of energy within their sound during live shows as is expressed in the EP. So when i listen to their tunes on my ipod, its awesome, and when i see this band live, its awesome too, if not better. This band has so much energy in their sound and their performance, never a disappointment.

Anonymous said...

I love this band!

Anonymous said...

i seen dem like 30 times. nuff said...