Album Review: Troubled Coast - 'I've Been Thinking About Leaving You EP'

If Troubled Coast were some sort of wild animal, they would have no problems surviving in the wild due to their obvious knack for adapting to their surroundings. That and there are seven of them.

What began as a fairly by-the-book hardcore project has now become something similar to the new post-hardcore wave of bands such as La Dispute. It is for this reason that they will now get a much better review right now than if they had continued down their original path. The new EP, released online and on 7 inch, titled 'I'm Thinking About Leaving You,' features four tracks that take the aforementioned described sound and mix them with melodic chorus lines, which may even give them a wider appeal than the current kings of the genre.

Opening track Patient Hands is an immediate highlight, the group use indie rock sounding guitars to provide an un-heavy heaviness with several well written riffs intertwining and intersecting with each other, backed by a groove heavy bass line and driving drum pattern. Vocally the La Dispute comparison is fairly spot on, maybe a little too spot on, except for the chorus sections when the talk-singing becomes normal singing and the melodies take over. This track also features a guest appearance by the American Scene's Matt Vincent.

Second song I'm Still A Loner, Dottie, slows the pace down but portrays some hefty emotion in its stand out guitar lines. The track builds and swells as all of the instrumental and vocal dynamics move together to create a desperate reflection on past mistakes. La Jetee sounds like a throwback to the earlier days of post-hardcore, I'm talking early Funeral For A Friend/Hawthorne Heights/Silverstein, which the band successfully combine with elements of the newer sound to make a strong track.

The EP ends with The First Night Of The New World, which mirrors the slow pace, guitar driven formula of I'm Still A Loner, Dottie, proving that the guitar lines are one of the finer elements of this group.

A lot of reviews talk about how there is no unheard style of genre left these days for bands to be truly original, so the good bands can merely make something new out of things that already exist. If that is true then Troubled Coast do that extremely well, the underlying question that creates is, at what point does that statement become an excuse for blatant style and sound stealing? Without answering the question, the sounds in these four tracks have been heard before, but not together in this way, so if that is how you be “a good band” these days, Troubled Coast are a good band, and this is a strong, enjoyable EP.

1. Patient Hands

2. I'm Still A Loner, Dottie

3. La Jetee

4. The First Night Of The New World