Search - June of 44 :: Engine Takes to the Water

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

wetdevohzine | Hooksett, NH United States | 05/30/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I'm not a big fan of music reviews per se, but seeing how none of the other reviews seem to do this album justice, I've decided to dip my little dinghy in the proverbial music critic waters. First of all, don't mistake this album for emo. It's better than most emo. Most Emo puts me to sleep. Its chord progressions are generally too predictable and its vocalists all try too hard to sound so damn "passionate par excellence." Facile? Yes. Secondly, this isn't an album for all you guitar techs out there who attend Super Musician University and fiddle-de-diddle on your Charvels in the Dorian mode. Nope. You're ears are just too sensitive for June Of '44. The dissonance is sure to make your pitch-perfect, virtuoso ears cringe. Plus, this album lacks the stately pomp and grandeur you're looking for in a rock outfit. Stick to A Perfect Circle. They're always a safe bet. This album is scary...you won't find any members of June strutting around local coffee houses decked out in mascara and penning bad angst poetry. This album is scary in the way that everything comes undone eventually. This is the music right before the end. The sidelong glance at the switchblade before its metal glint blinds the victim. With most "heavy albums" you get this kinda' mishy-mashy emotional hodge-podge of aural impressionism. This kinda' indirect scribbling of schoolyard gestures and the all-too-famous lyrical investigation of the subject. However, most "heavy albums" lack objective drama. Unlike folk and country, they never seem to tell stories. This "heavy album" tells stories as opposed to betraying subjective mysteries. Stories of ships sinking, houses burning, and souls losing.This album may just change the way you look at music if you give it a chance. Why not give it a chance?--Seth"

This Boat Doesn't...

John Carswell | Franklin, TN | 01/31/2001

(4 out of 5 stars)

"The first thing I realized, when I made that initial survey of the songs, album art, and song titles, was that this album was going to be about boats somehow. From the square-rigger on the cover, to the compass embossed on the CD, to song titles like "Pail Horse Sailor" and screams of "Port and bow, stern and starboard!", this is nautical rawk all the way. "Have a Safe Trip, Dear" starts off the album in a very Rodan fashion. Bob Weston behind the mixing board, Jeff Mueller on spoken vocals, guitars spewing random chimes and mysterious chord progressions, and then that sucker erupts. It's soft-loud-soft-loud heaven. To top it off, it clocks in at somewhere around nine minutes. "June Miller" features Sean Meadows on vocals, and is about as near to straight-forward rock n' roll as June of '44 gets. It's much shorter. And that's a good thing too, because that noodly guitar riff is kind of annoying. Anyway, the first two songs establish a June of '44 tradition: understanding every single word Mueller speaks/screams and not understanding any of the gibberish that Meadows mumbles/glass throats. The next four songs all kind of blend together. "Pale Horse Sailor" is a Rodan left-over that features Mueller rapping about all kinds of neat ocean stuff he must have learned in that sailing class he took, over percussion experimentation akin to the middle section of Rachel's "Rhine & Courtesan". "Mindel" is a rocking instrumental, and leads into the moon-lit lullaby of "I Get My Kicks for You". Fred Erskine's trumpet is a big bonus on this song, and the guitars are absolutely lovely. It established a trend for some of the band's finest work that stayed with them to Four Great Points: elegant and intricate two guitar interplay with light percussion accompaniment. It quietly slips away into the morning, and "Mooch" makes the sunrise again. "Take It With a Grain of Salt" is another fantastic rocker, and leads into "Sink if Busted", another archetypal song that would be explored again on Tropics & Meridians. It's a great way to end the album, and proves that the band is indeed capable of many styles, something that they are attempting to prove on a wider scale today."

Best of Artist

John Carswell | 03/01/1999

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Angry, frustrated, beautiful; "Engine" is June of 44's best album, though maybe not its most readily acceptable to the mainstream music fan. The complex and exciting song structures are completely complemented by the excellent vocalists , Meadows and Mueller. Tropics and Meridians and Four Great Points may be better break-in albums for the new listener; experienced fans though, will always be drawn back to Engine as the bands best overall effort."