Albums

SometimeNever - Vs Time and Opportunity

Tim Miller 25/07/2007

Rating: 2/5

At The Drive-In must feature pretty high on a list of the most influential bands of the last decade: barely a week goes by without a furious new punk rock record citing those purveyors of hardcore punk values as demi-gods, and Sometimenever are no exception.

This concise debut LP is nine tracks in length, but with a hellish intro of dissonant strings, marching band drums and awkward noise, as well as a similarly uncomfortable vocal interlude buried later on, the album is over quicker than expected, and packs less of a punch because of it.

'Vs Time and Opportunity' shines most when Sometimenever elicit the angry, snotty spirit worthy of their icons. Standout tracks 'Mr Park's Hand' and 'All My Favourite People are so Very Uncool' are all terse snatches of guitar and taut, scratchy drums, clawing vocals ripping into an image-obsessed music industry that's stifling any creative and innovative output of note, while echoes of Incubus linger around 'Graduation Day' and 'Rule Seventy-Four', Sometimenever's more straightforward moments.

But irate though they undoubtedly are, for a 'post-hardcore' five-piece they don't make much of a racket. Sometimenever's debut seems stifled itself, an underwhelming production restricting the attitude of passionate vitriol to a restrained and faltering resistance.