“Lilac” by The Early November – Review

“Lilac” – The Early November
6.1/10 | Indie Pop

I really want to like this album. There are some truly great songs on it that keep me coming back over and over again, yet every time I seem to walk away disappointed. The best albums are the ones that you enjoy more on every listen, but The Early November’s most recent effort is doing just the opposite.

By all measurements, Lilac should be a good record. The Early November an experienced band with a penchant for songwriting and hook-crafting. Four years after their last release, they were poised to come back strong and all of the lead singles supported this idea. Delays did nothing to quell the potential, and the late addition of highlight “Ave Maria” actually seemed to show that the album would be even better as a result. It’s hard to say what impact the delay had, but listening to the final product, it all just falls a little flat.

“Perfect Sphere (Bubbles)” kicks the album off well enough and shows The Early November’s strong pop sensibilities. It features a pleasant chorus with a nice trill afterwords, but the verses are somewhat lackluster. Second track “My Weakness” serves as a complete inversion, delivering a comparatively heavy verse that steals the show. However, the instrumentation pauses before launching into a chorus that falls completely flat. The following trio of songs is easily the strongest top to bottom section of the album. I’m a big fan of “anthemic” choruses, and “Hit by a Car” provides a shining example of the classic indie take on the idea. It’s with this, though, that my issue with the album starts to take shape. Even with one of the better songs, The Early November fails to deliver anything particularly unique or exciting.

With the exception of “Fame,” I actually feel favorably about most of the songs by themselves. It’s only when they all come together in a 38 minute package that I shift negatively. For a band that has been around for the better part of two decades, Lilac is a fairly generic album. While it may be above average in all regards, it still fails to capture my interest throughout its relatively short run time. As a result, I doubt that I’ll remember this album for any extended period of time.