Album Review: PMtoday - In Medias Res

After listening to the somewhat dampening opener of this album, you could be forgiven for thinking that you’re not in for a very enjoyable listen. Take that stance and you’re wrong, because what ‘In Medias Res’ is, is an album full of twists and turns that any attempt to guess what might be coming up will almost certainly be wrong. Well almost. Second song “People Are Machines” starts off well enough with a techinally Fall Of Troy-esq riff but three quarters of the way through you’re hit with possibly one of the worst key changes I’ve ever heard.

Next song, “Goodbye Blue Monday” carries on with a techinally brilliant opening riff but it’s the next song, “Don’t Exist” that in my opinion provides the centre piece for the whole album. It’s a song that interweaves almost effortlessly between the fierce and fast and dream like and calming. You’re left to pick up the pieces of what you’ve just heard with an extended, calming instrumental outro, you almost feel like applauding, it’s that good.

As if that wasn’t different enough from the opening songs, “I Am Wrong” hits you with a sound that could be a mixture of Bright Eyes lending the vocal stylings of Jesse Lacey, and with that, it’s an ideal time to remark on the musicianship of the band, it really is absolutely brilliant, it all sounds so slick and comfortable it’s remarkable. The album continues with the lyrically brilliant “Soma Holiday” until almost on cue, the you’re hit again with something quite differant.

“Composing A Commerical Product” starts of light and almost summery, it sounds like a song made for the charts, that is until you’re taken aback halfway through when it bursts into a riff that could be likened to a Muse riff which then ultimately explodes into something that is atmospheric and borders on epic. It’s left to “A Convenient Device For Ending Short Stories and Books” to close the album, and it closes it brilliantly, a song that sounds like a go between for fans of Circa Survive and Saosin, it’s almost a perfect medium and ends the album on a high.

All in all, despite some small inconsistencies, what we have here is a technically outstanding album. In Medias Res borrows from a lot of genres but never does it sound like a forced sound. Despite the differences in the sounds of songs, it all blends together effortlessly and what could have been a hefty gamble for an album has turned into a resounding success.

4/5

'In Medias Res' by PMtoday is available now on Rise Records.

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Chris Marshman