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Verona
Rumored To Whisper Suspicions
2004, Lujo Records
An album with the prettiest cover photo I‘ve seen in a while (a lakefront skyline, shot through with pink and violet, facing aquamarine waters) prefaces eleven tracks of indie roots-emo goodness. The standout to Verona‘s sound is the soaring voice of Kyle Logghe, who despite the occasional off-key note pushes his pipes to the utmost to match the intensity of the quartet‘s slithering, at times serene music - matching in sonic terms the impending thunderstorm depicted on the cover, with the sun valiantly trying to shine through. Opener ‘Matador, Liver and Liquor The Bull‘(huh?) sets the pace, coming gradually to its natural end; a pretty, lush tune followed up immediately by ‘Heart Like Locomotive‘, with its furiously staccato lead guitar line. Throughout, actually, the guitars always innovate, from the dramatic, epic Coldplay sound(‘Circumpolar Wave‘) to a punchy, raw tone akin to mewithoutYou(‘Sun Up, Sun Down‘), and finding middle ground on a fragile-yet-bouncy shuffle of a song called ‘Real Crime‘. Guitarists Logghe and Tim Franz know how to find the effects pedals to match the song‘s mood in each instance, making Verona interesting - a trait lacking in a lot of music in this genre. This is definitely a rock band, as opposed to some somber, subdued lamentation. Lyrically, Verona paint cerebral, literate pictures of faithlessness, cold landscapes, breakups and memories, almost morbid in their bleakness. It‘s striking in a genre where no one generally cares about words how effortlessly the thoughts rhyme and stand alone as couplets; while not uplifting, Rumored is complete in a way, and with the usual strong production of Matt Bayles(whos own band Minus the Bear‘s pop sensibilities can be faintly heard here), this is an effort worthy of a listen.
- Mike Postma
Copyright 2005