Siberian
With Me
Sonic Boom
When this one starts, the first thing that pops into my mind was how this sounds like Editors Light; his voice, while whiskey smooth, isn’t quite Tom Smith. As it goes on through the tracks, there are some nuances that point towards Muse but they aren’t as grand and opulent with their sound. The lyrics are a little out there for my taste but I’m sure that this band will find it’s niche rather quickly once this hits the streets. Siberian – made up of Finn Parnell (vocals and guitars), Zach Tillman (bass and backing vocals), Aaron Benson (drums and percussion) and Colin Wolberg (guitar) – have graced the Seattle music scene for over 3 years and have strong hometown following to build on.
There are only a couple of tracks that stand out to me, “Paper Birds” and “Tightropes” would really be the only radio-friendly tracks on the CD. The former is a guitar-driven track where Finn sings about being young and in love and I can hear the fangirls squeal already. “Paper Birds, they don’t sing/ they just fake it and I’m not okay/ we’re just kids man, but we’ll be someone someday/ I will be the big man.” Okee dokes, Finn. “Tightropes” is another jangly guitar gem that I’m sure with some radio airplay will help this band catch on. “Tiny Ships Brave Tiny Seas” is their singular pent up anger song and even then it’s not too vicious. I’m a real big proponent on lyrics in a song, it’s got to have something to say and this just sounds like teenage emo whining. The sixth track on this one called “Airship” has a much better groove to it but again lyrically this one falls flat. Six sentences repeated over for the full 3:29 is just a bit much. “O Orien” has 37 words repeated over for a full 4:00, I must be too old to understand this stuff. Georg Bendemann is a little acoustic guitar piece that seemed to have a little promise until it was the same sentences crooned over and over and those sentences only made sense to the guys that wrote the song.
On a whole, I’m not going to be trampling people to get tickets here. They won’t change the face of the indie rock scene, but I think that there will be some fans that will keep Siberian warm for a few more years.
With Me is released October 23, 2007.
Siberian: http://www.siberianmusic.com
