Portland, Oregon-based trio The Wanteds explode back onto the scene, four years after the release of frontman Tommy Harrington's popular solo debut album, Let Go Afterglow. With nine tracks born from an assortment of the band's strong inner emotions, Failure Looks So Good is sincere in its approach to music.
The album opens with "Ladysmith", a powerful rock song with a real sense of motion. A soaring guitar solo toward the end complements the heavy, distorted chords throughout, and the lyric "failure looks so good on you" pokes initial hints at the album-wide theme of the struggle between persevering through a hardship and giving up in overwhelmed exhaustion.
Musically, the album largely assumes an organized form and a steadily quick rock pace. It excels at using repetition and crescendo to create that perfect buildup of intensity that teems with energy. The guitar sometimes creates melodies that sing and whine out over the chords, and other times is simply content drawing on the progression. The bass can be similarly independent in its roles, switching between backing up guitar chords and constructing its own intertwining riffs; it blends gracefully in the former case and projects proudly in the latter. And the drum set hits each subdivision of the beat with measured precision while still adding musical flair through variation and drum fills. It's apparent right from track one that serious attention has gone into the creation of every composition on this album.
But care in creation doesn't stop at the well-developed music. Failure Looks So Good is full of quality lyrical poetry that originates from the depths of the band's personal side. The vocals are sometimes energetic, sometimes sobering, and always heartfelt. Themes of the songs range from feeling out of place in your own environment to fearing serious commitment to a person or concept. "Exploding heart, don't fall apart from yesterday", Harrington sings in "Blacksheep Energy", a restless track that faces the serious problem of addiction. And the album isn't without its lighter side, as the moving piano ballad "Heart Shaped" proves.
The Wanteds have put together something truly impressive here. The album is meaningful in both music and lyrics, and in such a way that most could relate. Failure may look so good, but it's not what The Wanteds are likely to find with this gem.
The Wanteds
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