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Cymbals Eat Guitars // LOSE
The Staten Island, N.Y. band has always employed a sort of manic energy during their music, but LOSE sounds like a band that has matured, able to blend their excitable sonic freakouts with doses of restraint.
September 3, 2014 at 6:50 AM
Cymbals Eat Guitars
LOSE
Barsuk
4.5 Stars
At 25 years old, Cymbals Eat Guitars frontman Joseph D'Agostino has plenty of potential years ahead of him, but on LOSE, he's still gazing back in the past to the death of one of his close friends and how it still affects him today. The Staten Island, N.Y. band has always employed a sort of manic energy in their music, but LOSE sounds like a band that has matured, able to blend their excitable sonic freakouts with doses of restraint. The results lead to a touching tribute, balancing the anger and grief throughout the album and even within the same song at times. On the fast-paced "XR," D'Agostino barks out lines with bitterness yet still slips in touching lyrics like "keepsake tinnitus shrieks me to sleep/ each frequency's a memory of some show we attended." D'Agonstino and company take listeners for an emotional ride through nine spacious, shifting tracks, and LOSE is well worth the trip. – Alex Bieler