Review:

Cities

Cities

Anberlin

The Seattle-based Tooth & Nail record company specialises in championing spiky, hard-rocking, American gothic-style indie bands that are emotionally aware and who also happen to be Christians. Anberlin is no exception. Specialising in a post-grunge wall of sound that’s as much about adrenaline as it is about emotion, the Orlando, Florida quintet’s third album, ‘Cities’, sees them wearing their hearts on their sleeves as they deal with the intricacies and subtleties of relationships and living in the 21st century. On ‘The unwinding cable car’, for example, singer Stephen Christian exhorts a self-absorbed, alienated and disenfranchised individual to reach out to God because ‘grace marked your heart’. He then sings on ‘There is no mathematics to love and loss’ of how even though ‘words lost their meaning long ago’ they can still convey hope and love to people who feel emotionally numb. Sometimes only music can convey the message.

High:

A nineminute acoustic tour de force with a beautiful string arrangement by Matt Slocum, ex-Sixpence None the Richer.

Low:

The monotone packaging.

4 stars

£12.99

Tooth & Nail

Reviewed by James Tweed, journalist, editor and consultant.

£12.99