White Reaper
Only Slightly Empty
There’s a considerable lack of vanity in White Reaper for a band who previously called an album The World’s Greatest American Band. Tongue-in-cheek, perhaps, but in a classic, all-American power-pop sound and a reach that’s acutely aware of its limits, it’s humble to a fault. What’s more, the further its boiled down to its essence, the better it gets. In wanting to rock a little harder, 2023’s Asking For A Ride found some of the inherent charm of White Reaper displaced. Compared to You Deserve Love a few years earlier—released pre-pandemic without the weight of a self-imposed something to prove—it wasn’t the same, really.
Clearly White Reaper themselves are aware of that, too, when Only Slightly Empty’s focus is placed on that 2019 album and backwards. “Melody over chords” is the terminology used by frontman Jay Esposito, in reference to the inherent simplicity of White Reaper at their absolute best. So when Only Slightly Empty kicks off with Coma, resplendent with fuzz, riff-rock bravado and a sub-two-minute runtime that doesn’t feel par-baked, adhering to the mantra seems to be working. It’s Classic Recipe White Reaper, at the end of the day—half-an-hour or so of garage-rock and power-pop shorn of all excess fat for the hooks to radiate all the brighter. Just follow the tracklist and you’ll find that mindset rarely lets them down.
At the very worst, Blue 42’s minor grunge doesn’t quite rip in the way its poppier counterparts can (even without the Thin Lizzy-esque guitar wails that do go sorely missed). Otherwise, White Reaper don’t go far wrong. Freakshow arrives sounding like Third Eye Blind covering Jessie’s Girl, sitting flush with a host of other tracks to whom a crop of pop-rock riff-smiths of a similar vintage is in plain view. Weezer in various forms are an obvious one across tracks like Eraser and Enemy John; less so in sound but more melodic presence, the fingerprints of Dan Wilson and Adam Schlesinger are all over this thing. And yet, with the ever-so-slightly punk twinge to White Reaper’s music, and the sharper quality to Esposito’s vocals, it’s never a pastiche or a patchwork.
It is, however, very to-the-point in the same way, meaning that you’re dealing with some quick-fix power-pop instead of deconstruct and let marinate. Though that’s also par for the course for White Reaper, and their best work, no less. It wouldn’t be wrong to say that Only Slightly Empty could fit among that best, too, for as skewed and staggered as its levels are. It’s very simple and small-scale, but in true White Reaper fashion, squeezes anything and everything it can from that, leaving a listen that’s genuinely enjoyable from front to back. Like so much great, classic power-pop, it zeroes in on its one aspect, and utterly nails it.
For fans of: Weezer, PUP, Third Eye Blind
‘Only Slightly Empty’ by White Reaper is released on 26th September on Blue Grape Music.
Sainthood Reps
Dull Bliss
There’ll be a couple of groups who’ll be happiest about a new Sainthood Reps album. The first is…well, Sainthood Reps fans; this is their first full release since 2013. The other is the aggregated emo enjoyers who’ve found themselves eating particularly good lately, with the return of Balance And Composure and Peripheral Vision getting the 10th anniversary treatment from Turnover. As far as getting new people excited…that’s a bit trickier to broach. There’s definitely a feel to Sainthood Reps where, if you’re looking a ‘proper’ emo, they aren’t very useful as a gateway band. Give a non-listener that last album Headswell to try on, and with its slower tempos and emphasis on grinding, grungy progressions, they might just think it’s a bit boring.
By comparison, Dull Bliss is more newcomer-friendly. The established Sainthood Reps brew of emo, grunge and shavings of post-hardcore hasn’t gone anywhere, but on the whole, it’s a bit clearer and more open now. Songs like Doesn’t Exist and especially Dizzy have marked out their melodies in a thicker, more standout way, and Surfer, while still heavily indebted to blurred-out textures approaching shoegaze, opts for a significantly lighter touch. The benefit can be clearly seen, not through any additional anthemic uplift, but just in pure feel.
Unfortunately, it’s not quite enough to get Sainthood Reps over the finish line, as Dull Bliss still finds itself with insufficiently greased wheels. It afflicts a lot of emo acts, particularly those who aren’t in the upper echelons and are left to churn about the middle tiers. Perhaps it would be better to really crank things up a notch, falling into Sainthood Reps’ nascent punk side or even the post-hardcore that’s already embedded. In its current state, Dull Bliss doesn’t have that much of its own identity, thanks to songs that still drift more easily than they should. Especially towards the end with the fragments Quinoa Valley Recording Company and (tell me your darkest memory) bunched so close together, an energy that’s already in mid-gear is quick to taper off, more than it should be.
At the same time, Dull Bliss is never objectionable or outright bad in what it’s doing. It aptly fits in the same B-to-C-class of emo that Sainthood Reps were forged in, now a little more finely chiseled out without actively overstepping bounds. And that’s fine; it works for what it is and fills the gaps in its scene that need filling. It’s a role always played by Sainthood Reps, after all—a suitable alternative to the main players without the secret sauce to become one themselves. Not exactly a glowing participant in the extended emo universe, then, but a participant nonetheless.
For fans of: The Hotelier, Foxing, Somerset Thrower
‘Dull Bliss’ by Sainthood Reps is released on 26th September on Smartpunk Records.
SCALER
Endlessly
The vibe of SCALER’s Endlessly is far from unfamiliar. It’s practically the mandatory thing for anyone looking to stray into industrial music and IDM while keeping a vaguely alternative context, namely that you take whatever you can from Nine Inch Nails and HEALTH. Even if 2022’s Void was more mercenary in that sense (and less good for it), Endlessly is hardly blazing a new trail. You sure won’t find evidence of alleged post-punk and noise-rock influences on this, or all that much to suggest that SCALER aren’t just keeping a tight grip on those coattails.
At the same time, it’s not bad. For the audience who like this stuff (probably bleeding into the fringes of darkwave, too), it’s not like Endlessly is doing a disservice to its style. If anything, the washed-out drill warp of Salt shows that, when they’re open to more experimentation or—heaven forfend!—fun, SCALER can stand out. It’s just a shame that, by the edict of a sound forged by perennial miserablists, you won’t always get that. The dire, hardened exterior, while clearly an attractive prospect in itself to SCALER, leaves them at a dead end more often than would be ideal. Worse still, there are the limitations of a small band to contend with, too, such as how any instance of heavy guitars like on Broken Entry feels budgeted for a thick block instead of a roar.
At the same time, SCALER are evidently making the most of what they’ve got, and certainly reaching for more than they did on Void. Cold Storage has quite a lot of cool ideas going for it, with the tactile, fittingly chilly house shifts making for easily the most entertaining of Endlessly’s instrumental cuts. It’s also the track that feels the most flexible while remaining between the aforementioned twin pillars, arguably a showcase of SCALER at their best. Let’s also just stress that none of this (save for the overweight industrial-rap of Salvation) is awful; even when it does fade into other background, technical proficiency can stand on its own.
The prevailing feel that Endlessly gives off is that, if you’re intimately familiar with this stuff and are in the market for more, that’s how you’ll get the most from it. Without the crossover frills like HEALTH often perpetuate with their many varied collaborators, a lot of music like this falls into that camp. And there’s absolutely a market for SCALER just by doing what they already do. The weirder side of electronic music can be a tough sell as it is, so credit to SCALER for getting as far as they have (even if some additional tinkering and testing for the next album wouldn’t go amiss).
For fans of: Nine Inch Nails, PVA, Crimewave
‘Endlessly’ by SCALER is released on 26th September on Black Acre Records.
Words by Luke Nuttall
