Review: James Supercave - Better Strange
Better Strange James Supercave’s debut album after the release of their EP, The Afternoon. Catchy rhythms and sharp vocals certainly set a unique sound for the band. Better Strange experiments with a variety of different sounds and styles. Simply using a guitar and drum-kit one moment, the group will try its hand at a much more synthetic sound the next. With similar singing styles to alt-J and Foster The People’s techno-pop tendencies, Better Strange is a great album for those who are looking for a fresh new mix of music. Borrowing elements of both alternative rock and techno, James Supercave uses Better Strange as a way to test different types of music and entertain its audience in the process.
Better Strange holds a mixture of styles. At times, suppressed melodies and eerie vocals can lose the listener within the sounds while, at others, tracks like “Just Repeating What’s Around Me”, “Burn” and “Get Over Yourself” can easily be imagined being played on the radio. Although Better Strange has its fair share of slower tracks, when the tempo picks up, the band can really entertain its listeners. The group combines different vintage sounds with newer styles of electric rock and some really great songs end up being made as the result. The group uses a variety of different weights in the album. Some of its songs can generally be light and easy to listen to, while others have riffs and melodies that can really get down and dirty. Despite a few tracks not being the strongest, the overall album is very enjoyable.
Better Strange has something for every one. Songs like “Virtually A Girl” and “Overloaded” are perfect for easy listening and other tracks such as “Chairman Gou” and “Better Strange” are a fresh cut for electric-alternative lovers everywhere. It will be interesting to see which direction the group goes after the release of Better Strange. James Supercave has a lot of potential, and displays every aspect of it within Better Strange. The ability to carry good alternative rock songs of both a synthetic and traditional approach alongside each other is very impressive for a beginning artist. The potential success of James Supercave is massive, and the direction they will take their music too will be very interesting to observe.
With Better Strange, James Supercave acts as an edgier version of Foster The People. Its dirty electric rhythms will please any fan of good alternative rock. Better Strange is a fun and catchy album that is full of crowd pleasers, and hopefully, very little time will go by before James Supercave becomes a recognizable name in the alternative industry.
