If Love and Distance was the album that pushed the Helio Sequence off the rails, Keep Your Eyes Ahead is the sound of the duo getting back on track. They're still too loud to be the work of a genuine pop band, but that's certainly where the Helio Sequence seems to be heading, having trimmed the length of their tunes (nothing here exceeds the 4:30 mark) and emphasized songcraft over pure ambience. The album's biggest songs - "Hallelujah," "Can't Say No," and the reverb-drenched title track - are driven not only by dense guitars, but also a new focus on melody. But the group is still able to build up cloudy walls of sound, adding bubbling electronics and layers of instruments into songs that are lush, towering, and altogether gorgeous. For a band that used to channel My Bloody Valentine's mix of noise and beauty, folksy ballads like "Broken Afternoon" and "Shed Your Love" are a big change, a result of Summers' desire to slow down the band's galloping pace. Summers no longer yelps, perhaps because his scarred throat simply won't let him, and the group now alternates between massive psych-rock, dreamy pop, and Dylan-influence folk.
Four years later, Summers appears to have regained the use of his pipes, and the band's fourth album, Keep Your Eyes Ahead, is another sonic jump.
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The pair’s subsequent album Keep Your Eyes Ahead, issued in 2008, represents a change in delivery following Summers relearning how to sing, however. The frontman had an even tougher time on the road, where a string of shows steadily whittled his voice down to a raspy fraction of its original power. Helio Sequence’s new label debut Love and Distance, packed a vocal punch that proved too much for Summers to handle, with the singer damaging his vocal chords on the supporting tour.
The album was a step forward for the Helio Sequence, but it was still a haphazard move, one that found Summers yelping and shouting in an attempt to deliver a memorable performance. Moody shifts, doo-wop-infused anthems, and total clarity and cohesion marked this session as one of the best of 2008.On 2004's Love and Distance, frontman Brandon Summers found his voice and pushed it the forefront of his band's swirling sound. It sent chills down my spine to hear that kind of passion on the radio.
Almost a "Man, this is fun!" kind of look. While sitting in on the session, I was able to catch all the subtle moments, like the two of them exchanging a few smiles during the performance. You can hear that focus and cohesiveness in the recording, but watching The Helio Sequence live, you could really see these two as tight, talented musicians. The two best friends had been working on the album for some time, and overcame serious issues (like Brandon Summers' damaged vocal cords and the temptation for Benjamin Weikel to shift over to the Modest Mouse camp). Luckily, the session was exactly what I'd hoped for and more. The anticipation was heightened even more by the fact that the record was being released the day the duo was in our studio. Every day, I would play Keep Your Eyes Ahead and tell anyone and everyone that it was the best thing to come out so far in 2008. But listening to The Helio Sequence's new record, Keep Your Eyes Ahead, you have to wonder how the duo will pull it off live - let alone in a small space, early in the morning, with this kind of setup.īefore the performance, I had been counting the hours until the band was to play.
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A full band also seems like a no-brainer. It's different when there's one musician with a guitar - that seems easy to pull off.
Seeing such a bare-bones set-up, it's easy to get a little nervous about what that's going to mean for a studio session.
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