Album Review: Goodtime Boys - Are We Now, Or Have We Ever Been EP

As far as EP’s go, Tangled Talk has been hitting them out of the ball park recently, partly with thanks Lewis Johns, whose production skills have a remarkable way of capturing the essence of a band within a limited time period. Although Goodtime Boys are still in their infancy in terms of releases, constant touring since the beginning of 2010 has helped shape their sound into something fresh, strong in identity, and bipolar in temperament.

Swinging vigorously between frantic aggression and bleak fragility, each track on ‘Are We Now...’ is layered with tension. Rolling smoothly between heavy instrumentation and patient pauses, Goodtime Boys have a well crafted and distinct sound that hits as hard as Converge with the delicate musicianship of This Will Destroy You. Pushed along by intricate drumming, even their most atmospheric moments tremble with palpable energy that refuses to fall flat.

‘Daylight’ demonstrates particularly well their ability to play with texture; blending light and dark tones and allowing the instruments to duck and weave around each other naturally. Although they operate on different levels, stylistically, parallels can be drawn most neatly to La Dispute’s ‘Somewhere At The Bottom...’. Goodtime Boys have a generally more menacing sound, but both records feature vocals which leap unpredictably from a half-talk to desperate screaming, and veritably passionate compositions.

‘Are We Now...’ gives a concise overview of their sound, which is a hard thing to achieve on an EP. With a quick look at the track listing, the cycle they have set up needs no explanation, suffice to say that the flow of this record, both in sound and content, will be hard to match.

4.5/5

'Are We Now, Or Have We Ever Been EP' by Goodtime Boys is released on May 30th through Tangled Talk Records.

Goodtime Boys on MySpace, Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook and Bandcamp.

Words by Emma Garland