A Lesson Unlearnt.
I first heard Until the Ribbon Breaks as a guest feature on the Run The Jewels song, “Job Well Done”. Their contribution was the song’s chorus, a smooth, and rather pensive contrast to the song’s rowdy verse style. Perhaps the most distinctive part of this appearance was the tension in the vocalization, an underlying sinister nature to the catchy lines. This combination made for a great chorus, but good choruses don’t always translate to good albums. Now, a year later, the band’s released their first full-length, A Lesson Unlearnt.
After listening to the album’s intro, and second song, “Orca”, it’s quite apparent that this is an album brimming with one thing above all else and that’s polish. Multi-layered vocals and a smooth electronic backdrop ease the listener in, making for plenty of catchy choruses and beats that dare you not to stomp your foot along. Songs like “Romeo” and the aforementioned “Orca” are great examples of balance, straddling melodic minimalism and deftly placed electronics. The album’s strongest track, “Revolution Indifference”, features Run the Jewels on a verse doing what they do best, spitting rapid-fire bits of lyrical wisdom. It’s a nice contrast to the calm, downtempo vocal style that’s present for most of the album and, combined with a tasty chorus, makes for a fabulous tune.
Unfortunately, the rest of the record fails to be as memorable as these songs and many fail to warrant a replay at all. It’s here that the polish works against the album. The minimalism and slick production of the album’s better tracks was wondrously executed but on others it just holds them back, stagnating them in repetition. Other songs, like “A Taste of Silver”, try too hard to do something different and feel forced as a result.
Unfortunately I was rather disappointed by this album. It’s not devoid of good, even excellent tunes but there’s not enough to make it worth listening to as a whole. That being said, this album reeks of potential. The flashes of brilliance throughout this record show a great ability to form simple, effective melodies that pack a punch. If Until The Ribbon Breaks is able to improve upon their strengths and trim the filler in the future perhaps A Lesson Unlearnt won’t be so true to the title after all.
5/10
