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Great Escape
[January 26, 2009] | [679 Recordings]
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7.4/10
The Rifles’ sophomore album entitled The Great Escape shows listeners a band with a whole load of potential. The album itself is a giant improvement to their debut album No Love Lost which was a decent album but filled with “fluff”. The band, led by guitarist and vocalist Joel Stoker, has shown a vast improvement. Lead guitarist Luke Crowther again has come up with memorable yet simple guitar riffs that leave us wanting more and more from track to track. The band has obviously grown a great deal musically after hearing this record.
The Great Escape includes a total of 11 tracks. The album starts off with a bang with “Science in Violence”, a great indie pop song that reminds me of The Killers but with a more melodic approach. The best track on the album has to be the title track, The Great Escape, which was released as a single before the New Year. The song itself employs a great guitar riff that you can’t help bobbing your head to along with a terrific chorus that leaves an everlasting burn on your brain that you’re actually thankful for. Stoker’s vocals remind me a lot of The Arctic keys but with a more pop sounding influence. The album might be a little bit top heavy where the end of the record seems to weaken until the last track, “For the Meantime”. The songs seem to lose the catchy melodic approach towards the end of the record but still are an enjoyable listen.
Overall, The Great Escape was a surprisingly good record. None of it is complicated and sometimes it’s the simple indie rock/pop songs that stick with us more so anyways. Almost each song happily traps us into singing along with each and every lyric and wishing we could play the simple sounding guitar riffs. Although the record will not be making any top of the year lists by the end of 2009, the record is a complete joy to listen to and I promise that after even one listen, it will be tough getting the record out of your head. The Rifles have a lot to look forward to in their future and with the amount of potential that they seem to have, we can only hope for even more improvements to their records down the road.- Eric
