Caves

Get On With It

Caves Music 2008

Not my normal fare here on Nocturnal Cult but I have been giving this album near constant rotation since I received it.  Caves is Alternative pop with some early punk roots.  The album kicks it off with a protest reggae based jam called Curiosity that sounds like you might find it on an old Clash album.  The Clash theme continues into the title track.  I Lied starts with an electronic Baxter sounding beat with some vocal patterns that remind me of Bjork.  But the track that follows, Rock You to Sleep(Manic), is completely different and brings to mind a male version of Sleater-Kinney.  Closure with its sarcastic whispering voice claiming my face is beautiful, creeps along insidiously, though with a dark beauty of its own.  Whereas Without Thinking has echoes of U2 in it, especially in Jacob Carey's voice.  As a matter of fact on several of the songs his patterns/style is somewhat reminiscent of Bono which includes the next track Samurai which has more of a dream-like quality in its soft distant vocals.  Album closer You (Plus) Me conjures images of the dream-like essence of early Cure as Jacob Carey's voice soars over shrill and haunting notes.  Caves "sound" can be summed up for me as Sleater-Kinney meets the Clash while listening to heavy doses of U2 and some select Cure cuts.  Get On with It is an amalgam of different musical references that have been successfully blended into a powerful stunner of alternative pop.  Caves has delivered an album full of Late 80s/early 90s era alternative pop attitude with some modern innovation and some seriously involving heartfelt music.  Quite possibly my favorite nonmetal album so far this year.