Rocker (feedbot)
Platinum Member
Give Up have been peddling their emo wares across Brighton, and further afield, for a couple of years now, having released their debut EP ‘Laugh At Myself’ last autumn. With the release of their sophomore EP – ‘The Possibility That Love Is Not Enough’ – Give Up have put their matured songwriting on display; aplenty with warm fuzz and soft harmonies.
Texturally, the EP comes to life, with a unifying shoegaze blanket that affords each instrument its own space, awarding each song a shared identity. Opening track ‘Leave The Room’ begins softly. With a hint of chorus, the lead guitar hovers in stasis for a few moments before the rhythm hits; fuzzed and overdriven. It’s a song that yearns at a slower pace, while guitarist and vocalist Ashwin Bhandari’s words are nestled into the mix. As a mission statement for the wider EP, ‘Leave The Room’ perfectly prefigures ‘The Possibility That Love Is Not Enough’ – with its balance and tension between soft and harsh drawing upon a far heavier shoegaze influence than that of their previous EP, alongside a theme of yearning and regret.
The pace picks up with ‘Long For Your Touch’, despite the yearning remaining as a guiding thematic light. While it’s the punkiest song here, that punk element is playing second-fiddle to the shoegaze and emo elements – which is where Give Up are particularly pushing themselves on this record. The vocals build to a final anthemic harmony which is reminiscent of young Johnny Foreigner.
‘Abuse Of Power’ is a driving song, filled with downstrokes and hard edges. It is a song almost at odds with itself, majorly hitting the softer and the harsher extremes of Give Up’s textural style simultaneously. This tension between extremes is played with well – while Bhandari’s vocals remain soft and oneiric in the midst of these angles, shifting into screams as the song progresses. Brief oases of calm are interspersed throughout, though they exist as snatched breaths, never dominating the song itself.
It’s not obvious from the title, but the most upbeat song here is ‘Suicide Party’. Under layers of effects is a song that wouldn’t be out of place at an indie show in 2007. The juxtaposition of darker themes and lighter instrumentals – peppered as they are with brief shots of anger – brings The Smiths to mind. No doubt Bhandari is largely responsible for this, their vocals constantly floating across the EP in a Morrissey-esque fashion.
Give Up return to the anthemic for the EP’s closer, ‘Daisy’, a breakup song wrapped in layers of guitars. The hook echoes throughout the song, both vocally and instrumentally, cutting though a stream of ebbing and flowing guitars. Harmonies surface and submerge before the song builds to a climactic bridge that crashes apart, leaving one final, soft chorus in its wake.
‘The Possibility That Love Is Not Enough’ shows a lot of growth in the space of a year. This is a young band with a developed sense of their own identity – musically and sonically – and a clear confidence in their songwriting ability. More importantly, this is emo music that is unafraid to bare its heart with full sincerity, using its textural layers to inform the raw emotion of the songs themselves.
WILL BRIGHT
Texturally, the EP comes to life, with a unifying shoegaze blanket that affords each instrument its own space, awarding each song a shared identity. Opening track ‘Leave The Room’ begins softly. With a hint of chorus, the lead guitar hovers in stasis for a few moments before the rhythm hits; fuzzed and overdriven. It’s a song that yearns at a slower pace, while guitarist and vocalist Ashwin Bhandari’s words are nestled into the mix. As a mission statement for the wider EP, ‘Leave The Room’ perfectly prefigures ‘The Possibility That Love Is Not Enough’ – with its balance and tension between soft and harsh drawing upon a far heavier shoegaze influence than that of their previous EP, alongside a theme of yearning and regret.
The pace picks up with ‘Long For Your Touch’, despite the yearning remaining as a guiding thematic light. While it’s the punkiest song here, that punk element is playing second-fiddle to the shoegaze and emo elements – which is where Give Up are particularly pushing themselves on this record. The vocals build to a final anthemic harmony which is reminiscent of young Johnny Foreigner.
‘Abuse Of Power’ is a driving song, filled with downstrokes and hard edges. It is a song almost at odds with itself, majorly hitting the softer and the harsher extremes of Give Up’s textural style simultaneously. This tension between extremes is played with well – while Bhandari’s vocals remain soft and oneiric in the midst of these angles, shifting into screams as the song progresses. Brief oases of calm are interspersed throughout, though they exist as snatched breaths, never dominating the song itself.
It’s not obvious from the title, but the most upbeat song here is ‘Suicide Party’. Under layers of effects is a song that wouldn’t be out of place at an indie show in 2007. The juxtaposition of darker themes and lighter instrumentals – peppered as they are with brief shots of anger – brings The Smiths to mind. No doubt Bhandari is largely responsible for this, their vocals constantly floating across the EP in a Morrissey-esque fashion.
Give Up return to the anthemic for the EP’s closer, ‘Daisy’, a breakup song wrapped in layers of guitars. The hook echoes throughout the song, both vocally and instrumentally, cutting though a stream of ebbing and flowing guitars. Harmonies surface and submerge before the song builds to a climactic bridge that crashes apart, leaving one final, soft chorus in its wake.
‘The Possibility That Love Is Not Enough’ shows a lot of growth in the space of a year. This is a young band with a developed sense of their own identity – musically and sonically – and a clear confidence in their songwriting ability. More importantly, this is emo music that is unafraid to bare its heart with full sincerity, using its textural layers to inform the raw emotion of the songs themselves.
WILL BRIGHT