I just finished yet another listening to A Tribute to Tigers, the Temporary Residence debut full-length from By the End of Tonight, and I feel like I've had an audio workout -- but not in a particularly good way. The start-stop style that they were aiming for is much less Don Caballero and much more screamo, something I just plain don't understand. It's like that Yngwie Malmsteen guy; sure he's talented, but he tries so hard that he inevitably loses my interest and comes off empty. Not like there aren't flashes of goodness. The opener "4's, 5's, and the piano that never made it home" (clever title boys) starts with a nice melody and builds on it with the similar flare of fellow Texans, Explosions in the Sky. "Setting the Sail in April" is probably my favorite of the lot. The start-stop thing actually works here (for most of the six-minute track). Clean turns to distortion and the drums never relent courtesy of toy drum set player Jeff Wilson. But the everything-but-the-kitchen-sink strategy wears a little thin half-way into A Tribute to Tigers. The guys sure know how to play on "Tigers," but it's the same tired routine that they've been peddling for the last three songs. The post-rock Catch 22 seems to be all over A Tribute to Tigers; they try to play something new and inventive but just end up repeating the same trick over and over again.
1. 4's, 5's, and the piano that never made it home
2. Stop, Drop and Roll does not work in hell
3. Setting the Sail in April
4. Tigers
5. 7:30 Easter Morning