Emery

I’m Only A Man

[3/5]

In 2005, Emery became unexpected stars by simplifying their neck-snapping screamo into a direct and dynamic album called The Question. Blessed today with confidence and new creativity, their third album, I’m Only A Man, is effortless at times, but inconsistent overall.
One pleasant surprise is “Matt’s Song,” a startlingly elastic slice of groovy pop charm charged with Matt Carter’s sliding guitar lines. That is, until vocalist Toby Morell weighs its last half down in indulgent lyrical baggage. For Morell, everything seems life and death; through vocal histrionics and unrelenting emotional hyperbole, he argues that no life detail is too insignificant to dramatize. On The Question that technique worked. Here, it’s less convincing-perhaps because it’s simply too familiar. “Party Song” offers cautionary words on vices through addictive melodies and breathless vocal theatrics. But it also features a lead riff that’s almost a carbon copy of The Question’s “So Cold I Could See My Breath.”
Not all of Emery’s new moves impress, either. With its out-of-left-field a cappella opening and disco-shuffled chorus, “I Do” is undeniably the most oddball song they’ve ever written. By the time closer “Crocodile Mile” fades into a squall of blips and burbles, it’s clear Emery’s third act is less an answer than a disc that begs more Questions. (TOOTH & NAIL) Tristan Staddon



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