Christiansen
Emphasizing Function Over Design
Eulogy
Well, wudda y’know, another recent emo record from the usually tough-as-nails Eulogy camp (see Keepsake’s recent • and utterly horrible • The End of Sound for similar evidence). Thing is, Christiansen’s Emphasizing Function Over Design is miles beyond the aforementioned one, the Louisville, Kentucky quartet rendering their sophomore platter admirable in acumen and execution but short on originality. Although Christiansen’s quite fond of those jarringly quiet-to-loud dynamics that have earmarked emo-rock for a good decade now, they adeptly sidestep the too-painfully-earnest-for-thou approach that goes hand in hand with such predictability and, more so, their lesser contemporaries (far too many to mention here). True, to many naysayers, Emphasizing Function Over Design may seem like a bunch of backpack-beating bathos, but truth be told, there are a helluva lot worse emo records (again, too many to mention). But at the end of the day, though, and despite some occasionally hard rockin’ on Christiansen’s part, the album pales in comparison to something as soon-to-be-classic as Thursday’s Full Collapse. However, props for 18-minute instrumental closer “In the Spirit of Collaboration,” a dreary, Cure-esque swirlathon that’ll rightfully leave many a bespectacled wuss confused. But Emphasizing Function Over Design? Possibly•
Eulogy, PO Box 8692, Coral Springs, FL; http://www.eulogyrecordings.com
