ATHLETICS – Why Aren’t I Home?

Incorporating dream-like soundscapes full of echo-effected guitars with intense drum beats and vocals describes the sound of New Jersey’s Athletics. “Who?” you might be saying to yourself. Like you, I also was not hip to this band until checking out their debut album Why Aren’t I Home? For being a debut effort, this album sounds extremely tight. With some production help by Gregory Dunn of Moving Mountains (also on Deep Elm) this album gives the listener a chance to take a musical trip that has its shares of lulls of calmness by way of mellow down tempo passages. It also amplifies the harder intervals of post-rock hardcore-like sounds that really showcase the musical talent featured by the band here.

The album has a unique flow that really makes it hard to predict while listening to it for the first time. Usually I’m not one for over-the-top production on albums (as it usually takes away from the music), but in this case, the mixing and production of this album was spot on and without it, Why Arent’ I Home? would be missing a lot. “Lullby” is by far my favorite track on the album, with its sick drum beat, tweaked out guitar riffs, and gut-wrenching vocals. From beginning to end, Why Aren’t I Home? is an amazing album that will catch a lot of people off guard, especially coming from a band new to the independent music scene.

(Deep Elm Records, 210 N. Church Street, Suite 2502, Charlotte, NC 28202)