Search - Deas Vail :: All the Houses Look the Same

An Astonishingly Good Debut

Nathan Knapp_Voronwë | Seattle | 04/03/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Sometime in the last year or two the `emo' genre stopped being cool (I tried telling this to the kids at the local Hot Topic, but no...), and a whole score of bands either simply stopped making music or started calling themselves the new, improved and cool thing to be labeled as: Indie-rock. Right behind them came a new wave of bands (such as Copeland, Lovedrug, etc.) and though still influenced by the emo rockers, filled with a musical prowess that previous bands didn't possess. The Arkansas-bred musicians of Deas Vail fit into the latter group, with their new album All the Houses Look the Same, which boasts a huge sound with a piano-fueled sensibility that captures the imagination as well as the ear.



Frontman Wes Blaylock could very well be one of the best new vocalists in all of rock music, soaring above airy guitars and keys in a way that I thought only Copeland's Aaron Marsh was capable of (especially on the Mew-like "A Lover's Charm"). Backed by crunching guitars on tracks like the aggressive "Surfacing," and a simple yet effective piano-line on "Shoreline" Blaylock's voice soars through the roof and into the upper levels of the atmosphere.



Deas Vail's musical display shines the most when veering on the more melancholy side of the indie scene, especially on tracks like "Follow Sound," a five minute epic reminiscent of Coldplay. The band rarely falls into the trap of generic radio pop on All the Houses Look the Same, but even the tracks that do, such as "Anything You Say," or "Light as Air," only suffer from straying on the side of slightly more light-hearted pop.



However, musical maturity abounds that you don't usually expect on debut albums. Take "Shadows and City Lights," for example, a powerful tour-de-force with a deceiving intro that meanders slowly through moody keys and samples until the chorus, when hard-hitting guitars combine with a glockenspiel combine to create a powerful backgdrop as Blaylock sings of a hopeless relationship.A young band that capitalizes off of their influences with amazing ease, and a sound that is as interesting as it is accessible, Deas Vail seems poised for greatness. The future looks promising, and if their debut album is any indication, we'll be hearing more from this band--a lot more.

"

Stellar

NetBlazerDJ | Philly, PA | 06/19/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This independent act has delivered the finest debut of the year so far. The defining element of Deas Vail is the incredible falsetto of classically trained vocalist Wes Blaylock. The album is a great collection of pop rock tunes that are mainly piano driven, but the electric guitars do come out on a few songs. Case in point, "Surface", which is one of the best cuts, and features very cool background instrumentation, as do many other selections on the album. Another outstanding track is "Rewind", which finds Blaylock singing "This is how it feels to break up soundwaves, and fall into a quiet place..." Other standouts are "Anything You Say", "Life In These Little Boats", and "This Place is Painted Red." This quintet is dripping with musical talent, and you won't be disappointed.

"

If you like Mae, you'll like this CD

Rock Fan | America | 05/25/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Deas Vail does not have as much of a rock sound as Mae does, but there are striking similarities between the two groups. I find many tracks quite deep sonically as well as lyrically, the soundscapes and textures are only limited by a less-than stellar recording quality.



I despise the use of "emo" to describe any kind of soft rock where the lead singer sounds like he or she is still in high school. It does a great disservice to these bands that have much deeper lyrics beyond emo favorites such as breakups and how unfair life is."