The third album by Columbus, OH's Tiara kicks off with a self-indulgent piece of found tape noise mongering called "The Extended Forecast" that's as pointless and irritating as most similar experiments. Thankfully, however, it's only a little over a minute long, and after that initial misstep, things improve dramatically. The four-piece band mixes electronic textures into their primarily guitar-based songs in inventive ways, never letting the cool-for-cool's-sake sounds overwhelm the songs. A languorous atmosphere predominates, with indolent vocal harmonies and lazily strummed acoustic guitars the primary element in most of the songs. That narcoleptic atmosphere fits singer Eric Rottmayer's lyrics quite nicely; even the relatively upbeat-sounding "What We've Become" is downright depressive in its world view, and nearly every song on the album has a melancholy tinge to it. As a result, the songs tend to bleed together a bit more than necessary, but tunes like "Grandpa (Turns to Trains)" and the epic, My Bloody Valentine-like closer, "Nowhere Slow," are solidly melodic and musically intriguing enough to overcome that slight handicap.
Tiara
Titletron
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Titletron Review
by Stewart Mason
Track Listing
Sample | Title/Composer | Performer | Time | Stream | |||
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1 | Tiara | 01:16 | Amazon | ||||
2 | Tiara | 04:14 | Amazon | ||||
3 | Tiara | 02:54 | Amazon | ||||
4 | Tiara | 05:10 | Amazon | ||||
5 | Tiara | 03:42 | Amazon | ||||
6 | Tiara | 03:05 | Amazon | ||||
7 | Tiara | 03:50 | Amazon | ||||
8 | Tiara | 04:14 | Amazon | ||||
9 | Tiara | 02:35 | Amazon | ||||
10 | Tiara | 04:39 | Amazon | ||||
11 | Tiara | 07:01 | Amazon |