I just received Slow Coming Day's pre-release CD, "Speak Now or Forever Hold Your Peace," four sparkling gems of shimmering melodic indie rock. From what I read on the band's Myspace page, they're finishing up some summer tours and preparing to move to the Northwest. In other words, they have a lot going on right now and in the midst of it all, are still writing songs for the new project. So "Speak Now" is a bit of a tease. It worked; consider me teased.
Slow Coming Day is singer/songwriter Orion Walsh (guitar), Kevin Michael (guitar) and his brother Jeff on drums. Together they create vividly shifting soundscapes of light and dark, soft vocals and deliberate lyrics, buzzy after-effects and solid rhythms. Walsh enjoys the juxtaposition the high of low, combining the fatalistic lyrics of "Be Honest With Yourself" with bouncy upbeat rock/pop power chords, and it works marvelously. The brawny title track overflows with passion and thick beats. I wish I had more information about this titillating project; the CD came without even a song list. I don't even know the name of the final track, a dreamy ballad bemoaning the breakdown of relationships before moving mid-song into some solid old-school R&B changes.
I'd really prefer to give a well-informed rave, but I can tell you that four tracks of "Speak Now or Forever Hold Your Peace" is just enough to make me want more, more more of the burning Slow Coming Day. But maybe next time, include the song list.
