Album Details

• Artist: Triangle Shirt Factory
• Album: Widening
• Label: Norwood
• Year of Release: 2007
• ME Rating:
• Reviewed by: hstisgod on 2008-01-21

Soft, symphonies on the guitar are rarely breeds of enjoyment for me. Then you mix in glaringly rhythmic reggae and pop melodies to make for an atmospheric blend rarely duplicated. I can not put my finger on who the Triangle Shirt Factory sounds like, then again I really could care less.

Courageous with his vocals, Trevor Leonard has a familiar EMO whine. While that nose pinch wave got tired two minutes after fifteen years ago, Leonard has something more to give than an already beaten-like-a-dead-horse style. Emotion isn't the golden factor, lyrics are equally as talented and nominal, but its more the timing, and lengths of Leonard chords. They ride along side the instrumentation with a nacheral ability. But passionate, acoustic pop isn't the most melodic of this disc's moments. Remember I mentioned a Reggae breed...

Songs like Loosen, have an arrogantly clean sound, much similar to that confidence of Bedouin Soundclash, but hardly similar musically. Or midway through, Builder starts worldly, yet leads into a progressive and emotional acoustic fit. Reading through the list of songs is fun here as well. Italian Sun caught my attention well before I finished its file transfer. By this time, I'm growing more tired of the longer vocal stretches Leonard does so well. Once again the powerful six string saves the day, but is still over shadowed Leonard's overall voice and charm. Other songs like No Wear, Nowhere have reggae flavorings while Pace is A capella and cocky.

Despite its glaring downfalls, this album contains 75 percent music on the rise and 25 percent interchangeable production and writing. Either way, a spark plug from the monotonies of Alt-Rock.

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