Description
Label Review.
2019 album. Guitar pop. Also available on Vinyl.
Our Overview.
If Somos was a pop punk band when it formed in 2012, then the Boston based trio is now a full-blown guitar pop band by comparison. For singer and bassist Michael Fiorentino, guitarist Phil Haggerty, and guitarist Justin Hahn, that evolution came naturally. On their third album, 'Prison On A Hill', Somos sound like the mellifluous intersection of The 1975 and Alkaline Trio.
Gleaming synths and ‘80s-style percussion steer songs like ‘Absent and Lost’ and ‘Young Believers.’ Yet despite that, the album still carries the energetic spirit of their breakout debut full-length, 2014’s Temple of Plenty. Just listen to the blissfully anthemic ‘Untraceable Past.’ Fundamentally, Somos are writing pop songs; they just happen to be intertwining guitar-driven rock as they do so.
Recorded with Jay Maas (Defeater, Bane, Title Fight) in Boston this past winter, the tracks seem to come effortlessly, as if Somos fused the youthful energy of Temple of Plenty with the pop creativity of 2016’s First Day Back. It should come as no surprise that Somos were influenced by The 1975, Churches, The Japanese House, and the Rock Against Racism movement. Beneath the lushmusical scope Somos created are lyrics hoping for political reform.
In "Mediterranean," the band tackles the rise of the far-right movement in Europe. In "Iron Heel,’"they examine authoritarian rule a post-fascism world, Mad Max-style. Even the album’s title’a riff on the phrase ‘city on a hill,’ an idealised term used to describe Massachusetts Bay Colony and later adapted by Ronald Reagan as a warped American Dream for the U.S. at large ’has political roots. As Somos return to Tiny Engines with Prison on a Hill, the trio has a similar eager-eyed look as it did during their breakthrough year. Somos are back to having fun again, though they’re plenty serious about what they’re singing about, too.
Track Listing: The Granite Face / Farewell To Exile / Untraceable Past / Iron Hell / Mediterranean / Absent And Lost / Ammunition / Young Believers / Temporary Hope / My Way To You