Nothing is worse than misleading album titles.
And unfortunately, Australian band Hands Like Houses’ sophomore album “Dissonants” may leave listeners incredibly underwhelmed.
Hands Like Houses harp on a sound that may remind listeners of their music taste circa 2005. Though personally, Panic! At the Disco’s 2005 album “A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out” still has a disturbingly high number of plays on my iTunes.
However, when it comes to Hands Like Houses’ “Dissonants,” some sounds just need to stay in 2005, along with shaggy scene hair and that My Chemical Romance poster, pre-“Welcome to the Black Parade.”
Not to say I don’t appreciate the sentiment.
Sometimes it’s nice hearing pale guys yell into microphones, but in the case of Hands Like Houses, their second album was too uniform.
Some tracks were able to stand out among the loud shouting and chugging guitar. The first track on the album “I Am” offers a vaguely nostalgic, almost 90s Britpop sound that will make you want to drive down the 101 at 2 a.m. with the windows down and your throat raw from screaming along.
But what once was promising ends up leaving much to be desired. The progression of tracks bleed into one another, and despite some interesting synthesizer work, as heard in songs such as: “Grey Havens” and “Glasshouse,” the album feels like an overall reach by Hands Like Houses to bring something new to the rock scene.
Their sound is hard, sharp guitar riffs and thumping bass lines that are reminiscent of Fall Out Boy’s “From Under the Cork Tree,” especially in terms of the lead singer’s voice. Lead singer Trenton Woodley has a voice that just grates.
Through a technical lens, Hands Like Houses have a solid sound. If there’s one good thing to be said about “Dissonants,” it’s that Hands Like Houses has achieved a cohesive sound that normally may take bands multiple albums to produce.
They got it down on their second try.
But for an album called “Dissonants,” a play-on-words for the actual English word, dissonance, meaning lack of musical harmony, there isn’t any lack of harmony. The album is too groomed, too contained. Though Woodley displays an impressive vocal range — hitting screeching high notes without skipping a beat — it doesn’t change the fact that the album is simply bland.
However, it’s hard to say that it’s a lost cause. Hands Like Houses’ cohesion as a band promises more collaboration in the future, and maybe next time around it won’t feel so boring.
Unfortunately they failed to spark my attention, even if “Dissonants” gave me a brief flashback into emo nostalgia.