Pastepunk.com review of Swears.
Posted July 12, 2007
THE CASUAL LEAN "Swears" (Orange Peal)
Review by Corey Schmidt
If I was a member of THE CASUAL LEAN, I'd probably want to swear too. After all, the band has been sitting on its full-length debut, the bluntly titled Swears, for two years and counting. Subjects of failed recording contract negotiations, the band pressed on and, despite the fact that the band has essentially been given the shaft up until now, chose to properly release the album with Orange Peal. And it's a good thing because Swears is a bouncy and witty album with an emphasis on good times, angular riffage, and shaky rhythms. The band roars out the gates in "The Bride" where the vocalist dominates a chorus with his slightly gruff yet inviting style in a rather quick manner. His performance throughout the record is just as consistent with standouts coming in "Torch" (a story about his grandparents' legacy) and the mid-tempo, climactic "The Deer." "Third Degree Burns" is probably the sexiest track the band has written thus far with its added synthesizer notes while "The Blackout" tempts with the guitarists' more technical and shifty axework, not to mention the gang vocals and clever lyrics ("and when they tell us to save a little face, we tell them that's why we don't shave"). It's a shame Swears hasn't had a proper release until now because it's a damn impressive debut that's somewhere in-between the rougher post-punk passages of THE PHOTO ATLAS and the new-wave stylings of BLOC PARTY. Considering the age of the songs, I wouldn't be surprised to see an even greater follow-up from THE CASUAL LEAN on the horizon.
www.orangepeal.com
