With
Roy,
Dave Verellen and
Brian Cook have traded the Heavy technical frenzy of their old band,
Botch, for a sparklingly melodic set that simmers with the urgent, nervy non-sequiturs of
Neutral Milk Hotel and
Pavement. "We Don't Evolve" laments the daily detritus of modern life -- cancer, carpal tunnel, and unmade prime-time TV beds. This sense of desperation in the lyrics bleeds into the Americana brush-strokes that tinge
Tacomatose's corners -- these elements are what help update
Roy's guitar-heavy indie rock rattle. "T Town Concrete" applies musings on the same sense of complacency to the residents of Tacoma, Washington. In the background, spidery, trebly guitars build a fuzzy discourse. The drums pound in the track's overture, but it can't -- doesn't seem to want to -- hide its debt to the driving anthemics of mid-to late-'90s indie. "Bolivian Army Lays Siege to Seattle" is a bitter ode to all the Meth users in the Tacoma metro area ("My hometown has got a problem/With people cooking ephedrine/Shady men guarding trailers brandishing shotguns"), while "Lightweights Exclusively" blisses out a bit between bipolar vocals and bursts of crashing percussion that return from the EP's beginning.
Botch fans take note -- the similarities here are in personnel only. Nevertheless, the future looks promising, if a bit neurotic, for
Roy. Recommended.