White Belt Yellow Tag

White Belt Yellow Tag are either really good or really dull; I just haven’t decided yet.

That’s not to say there’s anything wrong with their tunes, musically they’re a pair of very talented lads; which isn’t surprising when you learn that guitarist Justin Lockey once belonged to the wonderfully promising but sadly no more Yourcodenameis:milo. I just don’t know; at times I really enjoy them, but sometimes I just don’t.

Opening track 'Remains’ doesn’t help though; it’s a middle-of-the-road song that builds into a sort of Coldplay-esc indie/alt ear basher that fails to really deliver the goods. A few ooohs and ahhhs compliment the haunting guitar harmonics nice enough and the drones of the lead vocals suite the array of sounds that build up over the 4 minute opener, but all in all it’s a track that should have been shoved in the middle of the album rather than right at the start.

The band tends to stick to what they know best. Every track offers the same sort of wishy-washy jam style alternative feel, and while it’s good to hear the band throwing in a few effects here and there, there’s just not enough experimentation put into the songs to make it feel like the band are really going anywhere with their music. After a while, it all becomes a little predictable.

There are a couple of times where I sat up and actually very much enjoyed a few tracks. For example 'Always and Echoes’ is a brilliantly constructed and very beautiful song where each and every aspect of what the band is about complement each other exceptionally. The same can be said for songs like 'News’ where the buildy uppy, heavily effect based backing track and haunting vocals shine through and have the desired effect. All in all, there are definitely times I really enjoy Methods and others where I honestly just don’t care.

It’s definitely a grower, and a few songs in and a few spins in the disk drive later you’ll begin to appreciate WBYT to some extent, but where some songs are exceptional and very listenable, the amount of songs that let it down weight it out to be a sub average album that will take some getting used to before you really stand up and take notice.