01. Feeling It Out
02. Skeletons
03. Breaking
04. I'm Trying
05. Settlements
06. Stop (feat. Jeff Leber)
07. Empty Bottles With Fixed Smiles
08. I Can't Do This On My Own
09. Dancing Dead
10. Father
This record pretty deftly mixes the coolest parts of ambient, warm, dirty post-hardcore and screamo to make a pretty interesting and pleasant listen. Arguably there are tons of bands doing a style similar to this one, though the way Roanoke mixes screamo influences with Brand New style rock-meets-post-rock-meets-hardcore instrumentation is what stands out to me upon first listen. The instrumental sections of these songs duck and weave expertly, easily betraying a post-rock influence that is applied tastefully enough to not come off pretentious of overbearing. Once in a while the vocals and a feedback overlap in such a way as to create wonderful chaos immediately before locking right back into a melodic mid-tempo groove. 'Empty Bottles With Fixed Smiles' is a definitely highlight, placing cleaner vocals on top of borderline noodly guitars to create a swirling, spacey texture that serves as a wonderful preamble to the song’s more intense later moments. Roanoke mix their influences well, creating an album that definitely deserves attention from fans of this style.
Reviewed by Justin.
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