Three parts become whole
Of Mice & Men have arrived at a beautifully enhanced signature sound on their recently released album Echo. After trudging through the growing pains of six albums, Of Mice & Men has spent their time in quarantine curating a masterpiece that unpacks themes of death and grief in a way that forces people to feel every word right down to their core.
Released on December 3, 2021, Echo is the final assembly of Of Mice & Men’s three-part, self-produced “EP Trilogy.” In an excellent marketing tactic, strategically releasing each song and EP throughout 2021, the full-length album Echo is comprised of the three EPs, Timeless, Bloom and Ad Infinitum. Each song on Echo is visceral and moody, with plenty of introspective lines for the 140-character philosophers to share.
The opening track, “Timeless,” has a soft and ethereal beginning which crescendos into a clean, repeated guitar pattern, then quickly turns into a thrashing breakdown. The verses are marked by a steady eighth-note pattern played over a background full of distortion and agogic accents on the down beats. The lyrics stand out with purpose, but the syncopated and slurred guitar moving behind the lyrics helps create a beautifully chaotic aura. Not just on this track but on several others throughout the album, the bounce between the soft introspective sections and those containing staunchly driven screamo keeps the listener eagerly engaged.
Reading like a diary, the track “Levee” sucks the listener into a wall of rage. Using rain as a motif to signify the pressures that can build up in one’s life, over the course of the song, the rain pours, the levee breaks and the diary entry is closed out with the lyrics: “and I can only swim for so long, so maybe it’s our time to drown.” Drummer David Valentino “Tino” Arteaga uses scattered, asynchronous drum patterns throughout the verse, adding a layer of complication that echoes the sentiment of helplessness and confusion presented in the song’s lyrics.
The following track, “Bloom,” delves into the feelings of grief after a passing of a loved one, arriving at the conclusion: “We were born to bloom, but we were never meant to stay.” Lead vocalist Aaron Pauley delivers the verses with guttural gusto, exacerbating the intensity of feelings artfully embedded in the lyrics. While a depressing deduction, the ending triplets emitted from Arteaga’s snare denotes a decisive acceptance to this school of thought.
In an interview with heaviesofart.com, Pauley described the reason behind Echo’s atypical release schedule stating, “What we’ve found is that with the EP format, you can blur those creative boundaries a little bit without having that same sort of anxiety from either the creative side and the fan side because they’re seen as smaller projects.” These creative liberties can certainly be heard through the mixing and mastering of Echo. For example, the track “Anchor” includes an urban scratch sound reminiscent of Linkin Park’s “Easier to Run” off their album Meteora, the bridge of the song “Obsolete” features an alluring base-line in a curious pocket of smooth jazz pocket and the song “Mosaic” includes the clouded sound of an air raid siren, heightening the severity of the plight listed in lyrics such as “Can we carry the weight of our humanity?”
Aside from an unconventional choice as the album’s final track, a cover of “Helplessly Hoping” by Crosby, Stills & Nash, the chances taken by Of Mice & Men has earned Echo a spot in the hearts of listeners. All of the tracks are strong enough to stand as their own singles. The hidden musical surprises provide a treat worth multiple listens; the hooks are catchy, and the lyrics are raw and relatable. While still calling on vibes from the ‘00s emo era, the newly refined sound on Echo shows true growth and development from Of Mice & Men.
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