The World Is A Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid To Die - Whenever, If Ever

01. Blank #9
02. Heartbeat In The Brain
03. Fightboat
04. Picture Of A Tree That Doesn't Look Okay
05. You Will Never Go to Space
06. The Layers Of Skin We Drag Around
07. Ultimate Steve
08. Gig Life
09. Low Light Assembly
10. Getting Sodas

The World Is A Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid To Die to people that don't know (where have you been), are an 8-piece emo band from Willimantic, CT, and I have to use the term emo band really loosely because I never think you can just put them in one box like some other bands. I think that this gives them a totally unique sound from most other emo bands that are all the rage at the moment. This has helped them become perhaps one of the biggest in the whole DIY emo scene at this point in time. When I heard that TWIABP were bringing out a full length I was naturally super excited to hear what they would come up with, how they'd use their new members to their advantage but most importantly, how they'd keep my attention for a whole 35 minute record when I've been used to their shorter EPs before this release. So while I love TWIABP, I don't want to come across as some 'fanboy' that's just going to hype them up for five or six paragraphs. Obviously if that happened they'd be no point in this review. Let's start 'Whenever, If Ever' then shall we? So the first 'Blank #9' starts the record of the a slow and steady pace, with pretty great volume swells, I always feel there's something that TWIABP do very well it's using volume swells to a get a great atmosphere going. Afterwards there's a pretty empty lonely guitar which is then filled out beautifully with one of the new additions to the band which is the cello which sounds beautiful and thick. 'Blank #9' then fades out and the start guitar riff of 'Heartbeat In The Brain' is played, a nice, muted, riff which next to the thick bass sounds fantastic. The vocals an this track will make all fan of this band feel at home, I know seeing as they switched vocalists I was really worried about the vocals being too different but to be honest, you wouldn't notice anything different in this record. Now if the vocals make you feel at home, TWIABP will make you put the fire on and stick your feet up with their next move, a build up and gang shout, which while feeling familiar still somehow manages to feel fresh and very new. During the middle of this song there is a soft part with a wonderful vocal line with the lyrics "Never felt like this, tell me we belong here" which is easily my favourite part of the song, again with that cello just making everything so much thicker. Now perhaps my favourite and most distinctive part of the record is the start of the next song 'Flightboat', it starts with brass and guitar working together to make something quite special to be honest. The noodly guitar riff mixed with very prominent trumpet works a treat. This song does feel a little different to the usual TWIABP formula, I think that's why it jumps out to me so much, it's pretty fantastic, especially when the synth gets it's first play, which brings me onto another thing I love about this band. The fact that they're not afraid to experiment with any instrument that they want is a really cool feat for me anyway. This song closes with the line "I hope that this works out, this has got to work out", now I might be reading to far into this however I think that's maybe a poke at the fact they're putting a lot of their hopes into this record. I think that's a pretty open thing to put into this release, honesty is the best policy especially here. The next song is the first one they released as a single and when I first heard it, I knew this was going to be a great release. It just had that feeling. It's called 'Picture Of A Tree That Doesn't Look Okay', a slow, droney song then being met with a fast synthy part which is fantastic. One thing I will pull up on, a lot of the time I really want the synthy parts to go on for long and maybe the spacey parts a little less long, however that might be the thing that makes those parts so good, the fact there's such a build up to them. I want to try and make this review not song by song so I'm going to skip to 'Gig Life', a song that TWIABP brought out on lathe cut 7", it was just acoustic guitar and a little bit a electric guitar to fill it out with atmospheric swells etc. Now, they've put it on this record but it's full band and what a difference it has made. It's basically the same song but with a fantastic synth part and a louder sing-a-long part of the chorus. Very great and very catchy. Next up is 'Low Light Assembly', a song driven by the vocalists of the band, all four of them. They do a wonderful job the mix of female and male vocals works brilliantly as well, musically this is probably the most skilled vocally, putting the whole 'bad singing=emo' notion to shame. Last but certainly not least is 'Getting Sodas', kicked off by a thick bass line and pretty shaky vocals. I don't know why but when this song kicks in it just reminds me of Balance And Composure, once I heard them in this song I just couldn't get it out of my head. I'm sorry if that ruins with song for you but personally I like Balance And Composure a lot so it's not really an issue for me. This is the longest song on the record hitting the seven minute point exactly, although the fact that it is the longest doesn't do it any harm to be honest I didn't want it to end when I came to it. With the closing lyrics of "The world is a beautiful place but we have to make it that way. Whenever you find home we'll make it more than just a shelter. And if everyone belongs there it will hold us all together. If you're afraid to die, then so am I." I felt like it was the closing of something I'd been waiting to hear forever. Ok, so some final words on this record. I feel like TWIABP have made huge steps up and that's something I didn't even think was possible. It's a beautiful record mostly high points, however sometimes the build ups/spacey parts are perhaps a little dragged out, however the longer this record is, the better because it's pretty much perfect from start to finish. Everything compliments each other and it really feels like a piece of art. It's something I think everybody should experience ever if you're not that into it. It's a fresh and new sounding record and it's looking to be my album of the year and if not summer 2013 record. The mix of post-rock/emo/indie-rock all boiled down into one big melting pot is a wonderful idea and executed the way these guys and girls do it, it's pretty amazing. I hope I didn't come across as a 'fanboy'.

Reviewed by Steven.

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