A Place to Bury Strangers: Worship

A Place to Bury Strangers, WorshipA Place to Bury Strangers: Worship
More than anything else, Worship, the second album by New York noise rock band, A Place to Bury Strangers is confusing and frustrating. At points, the album shows the band’s potential, and their ability to create something far greater than what they eventually deliver. While the album is not a complete dud, it significantly fails to showcase what the band seems capable of at times. The album’s biggest faults are its repetition, over production, and some times weak lyrics. While the band tries to evoke emotional and meaningful concepts, they often come across as sounding dull and whiny. The grade that this album received is based significantly on brief instances of greatness among an otherwise unremarkable album.
The album opens with a booming industrial track, “Alone” which comes across as over-produced and far too busy. The track, if nothing else, sets a slow pace for the album, and alerts listeners to what they are about to get themselves into. What follows are two tracks, “You Are the One” and “Mind Control,” which are plagued by unnecessary effects and repetition, rendering them essentially unmemorable. The title track, “Worship” sounds inspired by the Cure and is a step up from the tracks which preceded it. Perhaps the best track on the album is “Dissolved” and even this song has its flaws. The first three minutes of the song are quite useless, but once the song finally picks up three minutes in, the sound is better than anything found throughout the rest of the album. Unfortunately, the band fails to follow up and instead offers weak tracks such as “Why Can’t I Cry Anymore?” which, despite its good beat, contains dull vocals and a simplistic and repetitive sound. The album never truly hits a stride and fades out without a whimper, leaving listeners to wonder what could have been.
While the album itself shows signs of life in the band, there is still much work that needs to be done for any hope of success on a third album. That being said, Worship should serve as a lesson to other aspiring bands. Trying too hard and producing poor lyrics will never bring you any success. I only hope that in the future, A Place to Bury Strangers learn from their mistakes and live up to the potential they have shown in brief instances in this album.
Rating: 7.1/10
MP3: A Place to Bury Strangers “Dissolved”
Buy: iTunes or Insound! vinyl

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