Very Emergency

The Promise Ring: Davey Von Bohlen (vocals, guitar); Jason Gnewikow (guitar); Scott Schoenbeck (bass); Dan Didier (drums).
Recorded at Inner Ear Studios, Washington, DC.
VERY EMERGENCY is a true breakthrough album for Milwaukee rockers the Promise Ring. Over the course of five years and three albums prior to this release, the foursome had built a reputation in the Sunny Day Real Estate circles as one of the most hallowed emocore bands around. With VERY EMERGENCY, the band mutates its sound to something closer to Sloan than Quicksand. The amazing thing is that the band seems even better in this realm than it was in its former one.
The tunes here are deceptively basic, following the tradition of 'tude-driven melodic rock passed down from Gene Vincent to the early Beatles to the Modern Lovers to the Replacements. The themes, which are far from the dark, oblique abstractions of the usual emo-fare, are simple expressions of love and reflection. None of this means that the band has descended into blind cheerfulness or left ironic detachment behind--but even the songs involving depression, such as the brilliant "Living Around," possess a disarmingly charming simplicity, one that bathes VERY EMERGENCY in a wonderfully poppy light.