Gifts - Gifts

01. Poem
02. Music
03. Keep You From Everything
04. That's Better
05. Wring Me Out
06. In My Grasp

Gifts are a three piece from Montclair, NJ. All there members are very talented I'm not denying that and I'm not saying that other people won't dig this but I have some problems with this one. For me, this self-titled release is pretty much only area of emo I dislike. As the instrumentation? I love it, nothing better, really relaxed, wonderful chord progressions, but these kind of vocals just grate on me from the very beginning. That whiney American voice is really not one I particularly like, over pronouncing words and pushing them out in desperation, it's just not for me at all. To be fair to the guys in Gifts, the vocals do get less irritating as the release goes on and it ends up not making me want to cringe. I never go to review a release with the intention of disliking it, but for me, if this one was an instrumental album it would get my vote towards it. I'd love it, it'd be so relaxing and incredible beautiful, but I hate to be horrible, the vocalist just ruins it for me. One more thing that annoyed me was the fact their is self-titled record of theirs is on bandcamp for $5. That's just for a digital download and to me that's a really weird move by the band. With about 250 likes on Facebook, I didn't feel like it was a very great way to market their band, but that's up to them I guess. However! Just because I'm not into it, doesn't mean that you won't. Like I said before, they're all very talented. People should certainly go and make up their own minds on this one. You might even thing the $5 price tag is worth it.

Reviewed by Steven.

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