Features, Music, Print, Reviews January 12, 2015

New Music Mondays: Guster- Evermotion

by Clark Lamson

Guster-Evermotion-album-artHappy New Year, readers! We here at BandWagon Magazine would like to thank you for your continued readership. It’s 2015, which means a whole new year of music. Those still recovering from the annual musical drought (like your beloved BandWagoners) are excited to tear the wrapping from the gift of a new year’s worth of music This year promises some big titles, and among its first is the new Guster album, Evermotion.

Ryan Miller, Adam Gardner, Brian Rosenworsel, Luke Reynolds, and Joe Pisapia make up Guster, a Tufts University-birthed pop outfit, which began when Miller, Gardner, and Rosenworsel met Freshman year. Evermotion is their long awaited 7th studio album, and it’s just the dose of cheer that I needed, full of atmospheric charm, and stellar melodies.

While in the past, the band has meandered through pop, rock, folk and groovier tunes, Evermotion finds them firmly planted in a sound that pays homage to their pop roots, without being too cloying. 15 years of performance experience has given the band a weighty catalogue of musical tricks to pull from.

This is most evident in the vocals and guitar work. Guster’s lead vocal and guitarist, Ryan Miller, has truly outdone himself this time around. Each track moves with a groove all its own. The melodies are dramatic, without being overly-so, and the guitar, auratic and warm give every song a beachy, reggae quality. It’s atmospheric, groovy, and at its most daring moments, flirts with psychedelia

The standout song has to be “Getaway,” which sits in the middle of the album, sandwiched between two notably more chilled out tracks. While undoubtedly the album’s fluffiest song, it walks a razor thin line between kitschy nostalgia and cheeky irony. Loveably self-aware and undeniably catchy, the song becomes a simple, bubbly highpoint, nestled amongst a textured, sexy pop-rock album. Guster will be at the Ogden this Saturday (17th) with one of my favorite artists of 2014, Kishi Bashi. This promises to be one hell of a show.

 

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