Looking For Faces. The Vices

Can an album start more urgent than The Vices' debut album Looking For Faces? Just listen to how the drummer kicks the album off. Full of urgency, power and confidence. Just a few qualifications that spring to mind listening to the title song that opens the album. The Vices certainly make a statement here. Attention is asked for and given, with ease. 'Looking For Faces' also brings me to the only complaint I can give about the album, which I'll come back to. For now, let's celebrate rock and roll in the third decade of the 21 century.

In my review of the the song, in the singles section, I had already indicated that I want to sing out "Unbelievable" half of the time. That does take nothing away from the power the song has and that it's good and not just as something copied but fully in its own right.

In the second song 'Before Your Birth' the speed is taken off and The Vices shows that there's more to the band than acceleration. The lyrics reflect on everything that went before someone is born. All is just stories, although some do help with bringing some perspective in the chaos a life is, I'd add. An interesting topic for a pop song.

'Before Your Birth' attests to the fact that The Vices' members were avid listeners when their parents played records; the whole album does. The next step is turning those influences into something interesting. This is exactly what happens in 'In And Out', the third song. The band finds a nice balance between alternative, indie rock and pop.

The Vices is a band from Groningen consisting of four young men moving into their mid-20ties, with questions about life that do not always have, easy, answers. They have first foreign tour under their belt already, two EPs, airplay on Dutch national radio. It's time for that next step, in the form of the first full album, the release of which coincides with the first release of the new record label Mattan. Congratulations are in order for both!

Promo photo

Moving deeper into Looking For Faces it's time to look at that comment at the start. It is a fair question to ask what (kind of band) The Vices wants to be? There are so many, and so different, influences flying around that it is hard to keep up with the mood swings of the album as a whole. From EMF to The Coral is quiet a stretch, an acoustic folk song to Teenage Fanclub or a reggae song ('The Neighbour Is A Bitch') even more so.

What I mean to say, it prevents Looking For Faces to become an album in the traditional sense. It seems that nowadays most people enjoy an album as a collection of individual songs or not at all, so it is less of a problem.

Having that out of my system, it is time to focus on these songs individually. Except for the acoustic outing, which is not the strongest song on the album, The Vices shows two important characteristics as a band. One, the band can write and play an album full of fun songs and two, songs that will lift anybody up attending its shows, when the time comes later this year. From the title song to the ballad 'All That I Know', the band manages to capture me and lets me into its musical world. With singer Floris van Luijtelaar it has a front man with a nice rasp in his voice, making the songs more attractive to listen to.

I already read somewhere that The Vices is hugely talented. Going on what I've heard so far I tend to agree. The variation shown on its debut album can be seen as a huge boon, even if it lacks in consistency. The band can go anywhere, the songs certainly are there.

Wo.

You can listen to and order the band's music here:

https://thevicesofficial.bandcamp.com/

or listen to our Spotify Playlist to find out what we are writing about:

https://open.spotify.com/user/glazu53/playlist/6R9FgPd2btrMuMaIrYeCh6?si=KI6LzLaAS5K-wsez5oSO2g