When you think of Australia, music isn't the first thing to come to mind. Breathtaking scenery, endless beaches but not music. With the obvious exception of a few bands. Some band called AC/DC or something come from there. With the lack of immense "local" musical inspiration it seems as if The Getaway Plan have taken hints from America in constructing their sound.
As you listen through "Other Voices, Other Rooms" you can hear flashes of other bands in the songs. In "Sleep Spindles" for example its hard to not pick up on the Red Jumpsuit Apparatus vibes. The heavy but poppy guitars and strained, screaming vocals would not sound out of place in an RJA set list. The Getaway Plan are not however, yet another screamo pop band. They seem to have some depth to the songs. They are well crafted and at times, almost stadium worthy in their size. This is a 4 piece band that are pushing themselves to a bigger sound.
"Other Voices, Other Rooms" starts with a short and almost pointless little intro of the same title that is a mixture of rising sounds and voices to what you think will be quite an epic crescendo but, disappointingly, it just drops. This is soon forgotten as the first real track and also first single from the album hammers in. "Streetlight" is a strong song to be your introduction to the band. Its got everything you want from a debut single and album opener. Crashing guitars, hard hitting drums and soaring vocals. If it wasn't such a trek from the other side of the globe The Getaway Plan could tear the stage up at Warped Tour with a song like this.
The second track is also the second single and from what Ive seen on youtube is a crowd favorite at live shows. "Where The City Meets The Sea" starts off in ballad territory with just Matthew Wrights vocals and a single guitar. Not to hold back on giving people what they want the rest of the band soon follow in and hammer out the song. With a chorus that this track offers, I can guarantee you, that it will be stuck in your head. Its been in mine for some time now and its showing no signs of leaving.
Not to stick with one style, The Getaway Plan take things further and soon begin to add strings and piano to tracks like "Shadows" and "Red Flag". Each song offers something a little different to the last and it's refreshing to hear a band willing to try different things. The things they are doing are by no means ground breaking but in a genre slowly turning stale it makes a change. Don't be fooled by "Red Flags" gentle piano intro though. If you are not careful it will turn on you and destroy you. Its a fierce and aggressive musical beast that isn't stopping for anyone or anything. It leads into a very Underoath style interlude track, "Entr'acte" that brings together strings, choral voices and is almost sermon like in its sound.
The final track, "Transmission", creeps out of the speakers with the sound of programmed drums and gentle piano with an almost Hellogoodbye sound. This again is just another example of how diverse The Getaway Plan are willing to be. This may be because of a lack of solid ideas resulting in a lot of experimentation to try and find "the sound", or maybe they are just brave enough to try everything and not afraid to pay homage to all the bands that they have grown up listening to.
The Getaway Plan are a band that you need to keep an ear out for. This, I feel, will not be hard to do. As "Other Voices, Other Rooms" nears the final few moments of sound it makes one last ditch attempt to pull you back. It reaches its biggest crescendo of the album before slowly fading to nothing. Almost as if the last 40 minutes has exhausted this monstrous creation and it cant give anymore.
Last edited by altsounds : June 17, 2008 at 04:11 PM.
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The Getaway Plan - Other Voices, Other Rooms
