Full Review: Number One Gun – To The Secrets And Knowledge

I’ll try not to be too cliche, but ‘To The Secrets And Knowledge’ is both a familiar and a fresh take on the almost 8 year old band, all at the same time. Familiar in the sense that existing fans won’t really be surprised by anything on the record, but new in that it feels like Jeff Schneeweis is really embracing being the sole member for the recording of these songs.

It’s hard to tell whether the lack of band members forced Schneeweis to come up with songs like “Noises”. The self contained track loops vocal noises [hence the title] with electronic beats intertwined as the foundation. Chances are a song like this wouldn’t have come around, but like the chicken and the egg question, it’s also not unreasonable, with Jeff’s talent, to assume it could have.

“White Lies” drowns the vocals in a sea drums and ambient sounds, instantly creating a peaceful foundation with which to sink into. The song ranks among the album’s best because because it exemplifies Number One Gun’s strength of being able to create a total experience is such a short amount of time. Even the full on rock songs like “Big Machines” or “The Victory” wrap the instrumentation and vocals into a package that fits together so tightly, so perfectly.

The problem with “Don’t Stop Believing” is that it’s too close to the original to justify putting it on the album. After One of the harder pop/rock songs, “Try It”, gets moving in the chorus with quick hits to the cymbals and aggressive vocals, “Don’t Stop Believing” is a jolt to the listener, downshifting too fast into something completely different. If the song would have been done more uniquely, it could have been a better experience instead of the very generic ending to an other wise really good record.

Release Date: January 26th
Label: Tooth & Nail Records
Buy: Amazon.com

Tags: number one gun, to the secrets and knowledge

This entry was posted on Saturday, January 2nd, 2010 at 7:13 am and is filed under Full Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.