You Can Be My Wave

Memorydrip is a new band featuring David Marion (Fear Before the March of Flames), Marshall Gallagher (Teenage Wrist), and Justin Forrest (Caspian), and their debut self-titled album is just... okay. It's grungy, shoegazy, a little dreamy, and also frequently shrouded in an unsettling air that is very reminiscent of Fear Before, although nowhere near as potent. flowers wound up being one of the better moments on here with the soft and pretty descending synth line and the e-bowed guitar wails. I also really enjoyed the two-parter elsewhere. The first part has a great moment that features heavily distorted bass and a nicely paired drum groove while the second part sees the band firing on all cylinders. We get a little bit of Marion's harsh vocals as well as some above average singing. We also get some contrasting sweet and sour riffs and even some more e-bow wails for good measure.

My issues with this one do considerably impact my enjoyment of this project though. For one, Marion's contributions on both lyrical and vocal fronts can be pretty weak at times. Take the intro track for example, self aware. During the chorus, Marion sings very much off key and his pacing is fairly lazy. This kind of delivery has worked in a couple Fear Before contexts where the music was particularly disturbing, but in this case it doesn't work at all. Marion also falls into some pretty tired lyrical clichés or resorts to stream of consciousness throughout the record. Perhaps the most egregious case is the closing track one piece puzzle which depicts social isolation and mental illness in strings of basic non sequiturs; "drink that glass of water, eat before I leave the house, taking cold showers but I still feel like shit, still can't trust the doctors, they don't understand the loneliness of pain, they're selling me a dream." It's elementary, vague, and does not elicit any sort of sympathy.

Instrumentally and soundplay wise, I'm also not super head over heels. There isn't anything particularly offensive, but also nothing close to boundary pushing in the slightest. My least favourite track is probably the centerpiece Teacher, Nurse, which is a pretty unnecessary slow jam that I'm totally apathetic towards. Especially considering that it comes right after a much more satisfying slow jam flowers, a track that has a far more lush and dreamy instrumental palette. Overall, I would say that there are a few examples of some great, unique ideas, however, the band really should have spent more time cooking up as this effort does come across as quite derivative.