MUTEMATH

Armistice

As the press machine’s wheels begin to turn on Armistice, MUTEMATH’s sophomore album, one angle guaranteed to be beaten into the ground is that the New Orleans-based quartet–frontman Paul Meany, guitarist Greg Hill, bassist Roy Mitchell-Cárdenas and drummer Darren King–scrapped an entire album’s worth of songs (16, to be precise) at the encouragement of producer Dennis Herring (Modest Mouse, the Hives). The band then recommitted to each other and promised to write, according to the album’s press materials, “the best songs they ever had.” The strange thing is that Armistice doesn’t sound all that different from its self-titled forerunner three years prior–which makes one wonder what the dumped tracks sound like.



Armistice isn’t a carbon copy of MUTEMATH, however; it’s like the T-1000 to its predecessor’s T-800: sleeker, more advanced and all-around smarter. Gone are the simple, arena-rock hooks of “Typical,” replaced with a more Coldplay-esque sense of melody (“Goodbye”), where it’s okay to write a catchy hook without having to club the audience over the head. Lead single “Spotlight” shouldn’t be ignored just because of its association with the teen-vampire-abstinence film Twilight; its layered swirls of synth, nicely punctuated handclaps and Meany’s compelling vocals make it one of the disc’s best moments.



MUTEMATH’s not-so-secret weapon is drummer Darren King, and he shines repeatedly on Armistice, from the subdued jazz of “Pins And Needles” (reminiscent of Radiohead’s “Pyramid Song”) to the frantic backbeat of “Electrify” bolstering Meany’s sing-song melody. The stutter-step groove the quartet develop on “Backfire” implies they’ve been listening to a healthy amount of Minus The Bear in their downtime. Of course, much of the album still feels like long-lost tracks from the Police’s back catalog (specifically the funky, horn-flecked title track).



But the real achievement on Armistice is that the band have grown into their own skin, which hopefully means no more pandering arena tours with washed up ’90s lite-rockers and former child TV actresses. The album doesn’t stray too far from what made MUTEMATH such an enjoyable listen, but its nuances-Meany’s newfound comfort with piano balladry (“The Lost Year”); the band’s experiments with synth bass and strings (“Clipping”); taking a prog-rock risk (the nine-minute, album-closing “Burden”)-cement Armistice as the band’s best work to date.(TELEPROMPT/WARNER BROS.) Scott Heisel



GO DOWNLOAD: “Backfire"


ROCKS LIKE:

As Tall As Lions’ As Tall As Lions

Minus The Bear’s Planet Of Ice

Coldplay’s Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends



RELEASE DATE: AUG 18

WEBSITE: mutemath.com

TRACKLIST

1. The Nerve

2. Backfire

3. Clipping

4. Spotlight

5. No Response

6. Pins And Needles

7. Goodbye

8. Odds

9. Electrify

10. Armistice

11. The Lost Year

12. Burden