Album Review: Raining & OK – The Devil On Your Shoulders
Rating: 7.0/10
Raining & OK are reminiscent of many underground bands sitting on the edge of certain popularity, waiting to jump on the chance of the fame the pop/rock scene offers. This stage in the band’s career is thrilling to watch. The shows are cheap, the performances are great and there are a few solid fans that can relate having seen them live. Having such an opportunity to catch these moments makes listening to the little known bands that much better. Not every day, or month at that, do such young bands come together so quickly, gel immediately and make something as impressive as The Devil On Your Shoulder.
Formed by Trevor Tillery (vocals, guitar, piano) in January of 2007, Raining & OK, supported by Kyle Buchanan, Eric Stout and Nick Duplessis, shine in a different light than the rest of the crowd. Although pop/rock bears its appeal with its overplayed hooks and synthetic drama, R&OK cleverly avoided this mess. Tillery, whose previous band parted ways, pieced together a few friends and sifted through more than 50 self-written songs to form R&OK and create their first album. The result, The Devil On Your Shoulder, marks a big moment for the band.
Throughout TDOYS, the production is audibly better than most bands can boast in their first album. From the first track, “Break the Calm”, rich guitar chords rip through what one may expect to be a subdued pop/punk album. Tillery’s vocals provide more than ample support for their harder sound too. Not that Raining & OK are hard rock, but the magic of mixing beauty with the beast has been well accompanied in both the instrument and vocal departments respectively.
From the beginning of the album, hard, electric guitars are exchanged for an acoustic ballad. An example of this is one of the most heartfelt songs, “When You See Me”, which bathes itself explaining the flip-side of the emotional misgivings by an ignoring counterpart. Not only do the lyrics once again provide enough emotional depth for any heartbroken soul, but the music captures the situation aptly. Drums roll with the lyrics and a serenading guitar solo captures the highlight of When You See Me with its transient, bellowing guitar, which adds a high caliber atmospheric layer to the song.
Don’t assume Tillery’s gone soft on TDOYS, however. “You Keep In The Dark”, another harder approach, displays Tillery reaching the loudest, angriest and more effective attention grabbers on the album. Not that this song is R&OK’s best on the album, but it presents yet another display of the versatility of song and style variation. The diversity from song to song creates what is successful for this album. While each song swings from one emotion to the next, TDOYS isn’t compelling in the pop sense, which would be the closest genre for comparison. In order to break into the general rock scene (or hard rock scene at that), bands that have been a mainstay for years, such as U2, Coldplay, Foo Fighters, need not to introduce anything new to their sound. R&OK teeters between these two genres, which demonstrates their versatility but also makes them difficult to place in any specific rock genre.
The most apparent example of this sound is displayed in their best song, “Wade In The Wires”. This song begins gently, and then rises appreciably in the refrains. The stringent guitar also adds to the effect of how this song could apply to multiple audiences. The crisp production quality, the appealing guitar and impressive vocals are reasons why Raining & OK becomes so palatable. With “Wade In The Wires” by itself, not to overshadow the rest of the album, TDOYS proves that the rest of the album is worthy to listen to.
The remainder of the album is filled with emotional sing-song likenesses, many of which do not have a catchy hook. Many of these songs’ only relevance to the album would only be the emotions that tie back to songs earlier on. Overall, TDOYS shows a dark side to the band; a brighter song style would be refreshing after seven or so tracks. Without hooks, other than Wade In The Wires, TDOYS doesn’t exactly blaze a trail for the listener to easily run through the album on first listen. Despite this, many of these songs are undoubtedly well done, with both a truly impressive vocal performance and cutting edge production from Matt Grabe (of the band Goodbye Tomorrow). With a few listens through, many songs will sound even better once they’ve been singled out, put on a playlist and given more selective attention. Overall, I was impressed from the first listen, but more excited to see what comes next for these guys. I wouldn’t give it too long until Raining & OK finds themselves signed to a label.
*Raining & OK have shared the stage with This Providence (Fueled By Ramen), Brighten, The Maine, As Tall As Lions (Triple Crown), Umbrellas (The Militia Group) in the past couple of months. They plan on extensively touring in the near future.
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