Free Throw - Lavender Town

01. Slam With The Best Or Jam Like The Rest
02. Now Kith
03. Lavender Town
04. Pennsylvania Dutch

Free Throw are an emo punk 5-piece hailing from Nashville, TN and if I'm being honest newer emo bands don't get much greater than this. For my taste at least. I remember seeing their first self-titled EP and giving a little listen, however nothing really stood out for me with that first listen and I didn't feel obliged to listen again. I'm kicking myself now though. I was sent 'Lavender Town', the band's second release, by Adam (My Endless Minutes) and I wasn't instantly hooked to tell the truth. Being met with a super long sample from 00's cult "coming of age" TV show 'Undeclared' was a kind of nice touch however I can sure see people listening to this & getting frustrated with how long the sample is, however, being a fan of the show it wasn't too awful for me, even though I spent most of it trying to work out what it was from. Enough about samples though! The first song nicely named 'Slam With The Best Or Jam Like The Rest' starts with a pretty disonant and jolty start riff which soon explodes into a nice catchy chord progression which has hints of Brand New's Your Favourite Weapon in at moments. This is met with very Grown Ups esque vocals which I absolutely buzzed off, seeing as Grown Ups are one of my favourite emo bands of all time. The lyrics are very college stage of life, but I think that really compliments everything else. We're then met with another sample to lead us into the calmer 'Now Kith'. With a wonderful arpeggioed progression and a solid and strong drum beat to compliment it and bring out the best in the vocals and bass at the same time. This song builds up while the vocals get more and more broken up and shouty. Then at the climax of this track we meet the most relatible lyrics on this record. "I should have kissed you when I had the chance". Relatible and catchy, what more could you want? Next track, next sample and another slow one for Grandma and Grandad. Nah, i'm only kidding. Full of some more fantastic riffs and coming of age vocals it's another fantastic entry into this EP. Now the last track is the longest on the release, 'Pennsylvania Dutch', and is a great example why this band use 3 guitars to their best, with an intro that reminds me of Foxing's 'Sunspotting' the song soon picks up into a full and lively punk-rock chord progression with the bouncy vocals and drums, again not failing to compliment the rest of the instrumentation. I found this record a godsent to be honest. I've been waiting for a fantastic emo band to come around to fill a certain Grown Ups splitting up void and Free Throw have done pretty great job of doing that for me! It's a fantastic record however, maybe less of the old samples next time!

Reviewed by Steven.

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