Rocker (feedbot)
Platinum Member
Imagine the scene, if you haven’t already experienced it. You’re sitting in a dentist’s chair. You’re nervous, you don’t know what’s going to happen. Your wandering eyes settle on a humorous sign that reads: “Dentists don’t die, they just lose their pull”. You’re unsure if it’s a joke – or if it even works as a joke – but you’re not laughing, and at that moment, you see the outline of a silver-haired dentist in the doorway. Fear courses through your body. He says you “need some work”. And you’re thinking of that sign hoping upon hope that he hasn’t lost his pull and that this isn’t going to hurt.
Jim Ward has been making music since 1993; first as a founding member of At The Drive-In and then for 25 years with Sparta. He’s a musician with a lot of experience and he’s still making music, but has it lost its pull? Should you quake with fear? Is the record like a trip to the dentist?
The answer is a resounding “no”. ‘Cut A Silhouette’ is Sparta’s sixth album, the third since ending their creative hiatus in 2020. It’s an album clearly trying to recapture something. The title implies an outline or a shape they’re trying to fit into, but it turns out it’s not a sound they’re after. It’s a feeling.
Opening with ‘Split Lip’, the band quickly establish that they’re playing with the familiar Sparta sound. It’s post-hardcore, usually with a verse/chorus structure. There are lead guitars threaded through the songs, often playing around with different effects pedals for texture, and there’s a mix of sung and lightly shouted vocals – that sound. However, you can’t ignore the bigger, stadium, U2 edge to songs like ‘Mystery Of Missing’ and ‘Daydream’. That’s the shape they’re after – that’s the feeling. It’s like breathing – a combination of the intimate and the exhale.
Sparta’s defining feature (as with At The Drive-In) is the approach to lead guitar. Each song is shaped by guitar effects. On the louder songs like ‘Split Lip’ it lends definition. Notably, the sliding, pinching riff on ‘Mystery Of Missing’, or the really noisy blast of lead on ‘Everything You Say’, offer a slightly dangerous thrill and a knife-edge of tension. Elsewhere, on ‘See You Soon‘ and the soft, sparkly ‘Midnights’, they lend a soft atmosphere, enhancing Ward’s songwriting, which is remarkably strong.
Of course, Ward’s work exists in the shadow of At The Drive-In but what’s interesting about that is how it affects his place in culture. He was part of a band that sparked a genre and a movement, whose music captured a moment, whose subsequent work rode that momentum, but who then aged and evolved out of that centre of gravity – it leaves him in a strange place. Sparta have a certain cultural cache that allows them to retain an audience but they actually exist outside the bubble of mainstream excitement. It gives them licence to be creative, to soften the edges and to create something personal, for not just Ward, but for bassist Matt Miller and drummer Neil Hennessy too. The album’s sound relies on them actively working together in a room. You can hear this clearly on the stunning ‘Mouthbreather’, where the shuffling drums and twangy bass create an anxious tension, or ‘Crater’, where the interlocking parts function like a machine, allowing Ward’s vocals to drift gracefully over the top. It gives the record a newfound vitality, meaning it’s about recapturing that pull – the outline may be be similar to previous work but the figure casting the silhouette is revitalised.
Creativity and time have an unusual relationship. While you’re unlikely to write a symphony in a week, working quickly and under pressure can force innovation. This was Ward’s experience of making early records and the intention here was to capture the early thrill; not overthink, not overplay, just feel what is right. Given the evidence here, it appears to be a great way of working. Produced, engineered and recorded by J. Robbins, they have managed to capture a focused and fresh sound that wrings every bit of emotion from the songs. Perhaps the clearest example is the relatively stripped-back ‘Glimmer’, a quality piece of songwriting presented in a way that enhances its delicate vocal parts and allows the burnished honesty to shine through.
In many ways the record flows like a river. Although songs like ‘Without Your Hands’ offer a blast of energy, it feels like it’s flowing downhill, losing momentum but becoming broader as it does. In the second half the waltzy style of ‘I’ll See You Soon’ brings a pleasing change of pace, while ‘Mystery Of Missing’ feels like a crowd pleaser. Finally, ‘Glimmer’ sighs out the last of its energy in a wash of guitar effects like the mouth of an estuary meeting the sea.
Sitting in that chair, staring at the silhouette in the doorway, you don’t know what to expect, but with the strength of experience Sparta prove that musicians don’t age like dentists. They have more than just pull, they have their own gravity. ‘Cut A Silhouette’ is one of their most intimate and compelling records. A combination of inspiration, great songs and strict production choices make for an intoxicating mixture. Take a mouthful, rinse it around and you’ll find it leaves a strong taste.
IAN KENWORTHY
Jim Ward has been making music since 1993; first as a founding member of At The Drive-In and then for 25 years with Sparta. He’s a musician with a lot of experience and he’s still making music, but has it lost its pull? Should you quake with fear? Is the record like a trip to the dentist?
The answer is a resounding “no”. ‘Cut A Silhouette’ is Sparta’s sixth album, the third since ending their creative hiatus in 2020. It’s an album clearly trying to recapture something. The title implies an outline or a shape they’re trying to fit into, but it turns out it’s not a sound they’re after. It’s a feeling.
Opening with ‘Split Lip’, the band quickly establish that they’re playing with the familiar Sparta sound. It’s post-hardcore, usually with a verse/chorus structure. There are lead guitars threaded through the songs, often playing around with different effects pedals for texture, and there’s a mix of sung and lightly shouted vocals – that sound. However, you can’t ignore the bigger, stadium, U2 edge to songs like ‘Mystery Of Missing’ and ‘Daydream’. That’s the shape they’re after – that’s the feeling. It’s like breathing – a combination of the intimate and the exhale.
Sparta’s defining feature (as with At The Drive-In) is the approach to lead guitar. Each song is shaped by guitar effects. On the louder songs like ‘Split Lip’ it lends definition. Notably, the sliding, pinching riff on ‘Mystery Of Missing’, or the really noisy blast of lead on ‘Everything You Say’, offer a slightly dangerous thrill and a knife-edge of tension. Elsewhere, on ‘See You Soon‘ and the soft, sparkly ‘Midnights’, they lend a soft atmosphere, enhancing Ward’s songwriting, which is remarkably strong.
Of course, Ward’s work exists in the shadow of At The Drive-In but what’s interesting about that is how it affects his place in culture. He was part of a band that sparked a genre and a movement, whose music captured a moment, whose subsequent work rode that momentum, but who then aged and evolved out of that centre of gravity – it leaves him in a strange place. Sparta have a certain cultural cache that allows them to retain an audience but they actually exist outside the bubble of mainstream excitement. It gives them licence to be creative, to soften the edges and to create something personal, for not just Ward, but for bassist Matt Miller and drummer Neil Hennessy too. The album’s sound relies on them actively working together in a room. You can hear this clearly on the stunning ‘Mouthbreather’, where the shuffling drums and twangy bass create an anxious tension, or ‘Crater’, where the interlocking parts function like a machine, allowing Ward’s vocals to drift gracefully over the top. It gives the record a newfound vitality, meaning it’s about recapturing that pull – the outline may be be similar to previous work but the figure casting the silhouette is revitalised.
Creativity and time have an unusual relationship. While you’re unlikely to write a symphony in a week, working quickly and under pressure can force innovation. This was Ward’s experience of making early records and the intention here was to capture the early thrill; not overthink, not overplay, just feel what is right. Given the evidence here, it appears to be a great way of working. Produced, engineered and recorded by J. Robbins, they have managed to capture a focused and fresh sound that wrings every bit of emotion from the songs. Perhaps the clearest example is the relatively stripped-back ‘Glimmer’, a quality piece of songwriting presented in a way that enhances its delicate vocal parts and allows the burnished honesty to shine through.
In many ways the record flows like a river. Although songs like ‘Without Your Hands’ offer a blast of energy, it feels like it’s flowing downhill, losing momentum but becoming broader as it does. In the second half the waltzy style of ‘I’ll See You Soon’ brings a pleasing change of pace, while ‘Mystery Of Missing’ feels like a crowd pleaser. Finally, ‘Glimmer’ sighs out the last of its energy in a wash of guitar effects like the mouth of an estuary meeting the sea.
Sitting in that chair, staring at the silhouette in the doorway, you don’t know what to expect, but with the strength of experience Sparta prove that musicians don’t age like dentists. They have more than just pull, they have their own gravity. ‘Cut A Silhouette’ is one of their most intimate and compelling records. A combination of inspiration, great songs and strict production choices make for an intoxicating mixture. Take a mouthful, rinse it around and you’ll find it leaves a strong taste.
IAN KENWORTHY