The Rest

You Should Know


Another good Canadian band. Go figure. For the songs on their new album Everyone All At Once, Hamilton, Ontario's The Rest got their Bon Iver on (not like Justin Vernon was the first to write songs in isolation, but you catch my drift). The band drove away from the city, bringing the basic necessities: food, clothes, liquor, and instruments. Amidst the tranquility of a lake and the forest, the band wrote songs until the sunset each day. Everyone All At Once is the product of those songwriting sessions. The Rest creates music steeped in grandiosity. Take the absolute winner of a track "Apples & Allergies," an epic song somehow packed into a mere three and a half minutes that sounds as if Edge snuck into the studio and added those unmistakably U2-esque guitar sounds. Lead singer Adam Bentley's voice is a thing to behold and he proves equally adept at the quiet moments as he is at the soaring and anthemic. Lyrically, Bentley runs the gamut from melancholy ("Drinking Again") to whimsical (On "Phonetically, Phonetically," Bentley sings: "I could have been great. I could have been the gravy on thanksgiving.")  When at their most sonically unhinged, The Rest's music plays like something akin to the weirdest/most beautiful moments of a Michel Gondry film. Take, for example, "Walk On Water," which builds from lone piano notes and Bentley's fragile vocals into an onslaught of beautiful noise. Sometimes it's overwhelming, but Everyone All At Once is an album of great scope that accomplishes real beauty in both its moments of chaos and measured precision. -- Capt. Obvious

Listen:
MP3: The Rest - Modern Time Travel (Necessities)
MP3: The Rest -Apples & Allergies

Tags: The Rest, Everyone All At Once