Arms Aloft

“Comfort At Any Cost” EP

Gilead Media

By Rich Cocksedge
(SugarBuzz UK)

SugarBuzz Magazine

This is a band that I hadn’t heard a review of but saw an advert for the EP in Razorcake, probably the best print magazine in the world, so once again I utilised MySpace and discovered that I liked what I heard – I generally can tell within thirty seconds or so if I want to buy the product of a band so that was it, I was on the internet and making the purchase.

To look at the influences list on the bands MySpace page, you don’t need to be a rocket scientist to figure roughly how Arms Aloft sound. They’re all there – “Dillinger Four”, “Hot Water Music”, “Avail” and “Jawbreaker” amongst others. What is interesting is that they also include “Elvis Costello” which is a variation on the others plus the final line is “fuckin tunes good times”. It is this bit that intrigues me the most – a bold statement indeed.

The six track EP comes with a sticker which recommends that it is for fans of bands like “Dillinger Four, Against Me! And Hot Water Music”, so again you can quite easily begin to pigeonhole these four guys into a musically genre that is quite prevalent these days and which I have come up with the handy moniker “Melodi-gruffcore” or “MGC” for short!

Opening track “Comfort At Any Cost” bursts into life and what strikes me is that yes, there are “fuckin tunes” to be had in this little package of music but also lyrically Arms Aloft are streets ahead of many other bands around these days both within the “MGC” genre but also a wider musical field.

Following on is “Dreams Are Dogs That Die In Their Kennels” which I have interpreted as meaning that if you don’t follow the dream it will just fade away much like a canine kept in a kennel, not seeing the outside world. This song frustrates me in that it reminds me of something I’ve heard before in places but I can’t put my finger on it – that’s not to say I don’t like it, I do but I wish I could figure out what I can hear in it that seems so familiar.

“Chopper Dave” is another enjoyable up tempo romp, which I take to be an attack on how music has been manufactured over the years and lacks substance but is lapped up by the masses almost without thinking. This is an angry song, a statement against the consumerism of music, and stands out to me as the best track on the EP.

Next up is “Solid Ground”, another song, that as I write this review seems so familiar to me as my ears welcome it in for me to nod my head and singalong to. This track has a very ‘personal’ feel to it and this certainly comes across in the vocals.

The penultimate offering on this CDEP is “Skinny Love” which opens with the line “February days are good for nothing but split lips” which raises the image of a damn cold day. This is a song which gives the impression that it was written with some uncomfortable experiences to back it up.

And finally we have “DOUBLEDRANOPERCOCETNOICE” which to me is the only element of this whole EP that resembles Dillinger Four and that is only by the title and use of capital letters, nothing to do with the music of lyrics. There is one line that strikes a chord, “Giving in’s the stuff of dreams when buried 40 hours deep in another year-long week” which is something I can definitely empathise with.

I want to say that this is an extremely strong end to the CD but hell, these songs could have gone on in any order and it would have started strongly, finished strongly and had a strong middle. I really am impressed with this EP and hope that Arms Aloft can continue putting out such good music in the future. It’s hard to find bands that can combine a good selection of tunes with lyrics that are interesting and descriptive but Arms Aloft can hold their hands high and claim to be one of those bands.

Back to the influences above: they have tunes and they are on show for all to hear, right up in your face in fact. They write good songs with potent lyrics and I guess that’s some of the Elvis Costello influence coming through. And yes, they sound a bit like some of the other “MGC” type bands named at the start of the review but they are able to carve out their own niche due to the quality of what they produce which should make them stand out from the crowd(ed genre). Perhaps one day reviews will claim “For fans of Arms Aloft”.

I’ve also figured out why these songs sound so familiar – I’ve played the CD so many times that they’re like old friends now!

As a footnote the six tracks are collected from two previous EP’s, the first four songs featuring on the original “Comfort At Any Cost” EP available on Dead Format Records and the last two being taken from a split EP with THE Fake Boys, co-released by Kiss of Death Records and Dead Format Records.

http://www.myspace.com/armsaloftforever

http://www.gileadmedia.net/

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