Rooms Of The House

 

Artist: La Dispute

Album: Rooms Of The House

Record Label: Big Scary Monsters

Release Date: 17th March 2014

The Michigan Post-Hardcore crew's latest is an emotional, poetic and refreshing take on expansive alternative rock

With their 2011 album "Wildlife", La Dispute re-invigorated the Post-Hardcore scene with a sprawling, tender sense of musicality that had always largely been unacquainted with the bands they'd previously been lumped in with. "Rooms Of The House" indulges in many of the same resources as its predecessor; raw emotion, ambitious story-telling and an energetic self-awareness that leaves a strong after taste. 

"Rooms Of The House" narratively revolves around the dissolution and eventual collapse of a long-term relationship, and thus it's never short on vivid and explosive wordiness. 'Woman (In Mirror)' sees frontman Jordan Dreyer searching his coupling and finding how all the small, menial things seem to have meant infinity; "the notions of ordinary love" are "tiny dots on an endless timeline". The symbolic imagery on '35' is arguably the album's darkest moment; it depicts a bridge collapsing into a violent river below and people drowning as they try to escape from their submerged cars. 'Stay Happy There' finds Dreyer raucously and desperately trying to recover the relationship from its dying throes, and the closer 'Objects In Space' is a solemn spoken-word piece that encompasses a sense of loss and nostalgia. 

"Rooms Of The House" is somewhat less expansive than "Wildlife", and its slightly limp production means that sonically it's not always as powerful as it tries to be. However, La Dispute's driving honesty and poetic firepower is in full swing here. This is still one of the more refreshing takes on Post-Hardcore you're likely to hear in 2014. 

7/10

Key Tracks: 'Stay Happy There', 'Woman (In Mirror)', 'Objects In Space'

For Fans Of: Thursday, At The Drive-In