The big, chiming, atmospheric guitars; the chesty, emotional singing; the huge and cathartic choruses; the production that creates a veritable cathedral of those layered guitar chords and crashing cymbals -- yes, the guys in
Future of Forestry have listened to a few
U2 albums. But their vocal sound is ultimately quite different (lead vocalist Eric Owyoung is consistently on pitch, for one thing) and their Christianity is far less coy. The songs on their debut album are all more or less the same, but the effect is more pleasingly consistent than annoyingly samey: the almost-metal crunch of "All I Want" seems to follow logically from the densely chiming atmospherics of "Open Wide," and if the overdubbed vocal octaves on "Twilight" sound just a bit dated, well, so what? The 1980s were not the worst decade for emotional guitar rock. On "Thinking of You" Owyoung's debt to Bono is more obvious, and on "Sanctitatis" he fails to resist the dangerous allure of the Latin Lyric with Bells, but he quickly redeems himself on the acoustic-based and quietly gorgeous "If You Find Her." All in all, this is a very auspicious debut. ~ Rick Anderson