The intro track that is sans vocals sets you up for an interesting album to say the least. It's unlike what you've ever heard.
"I can't seem to quit you" is definitely a line from Brokeback Mountain, and I find that quite amusing. The first track with vocals on Walk North When Winter Hits is called "We Did This To Myself" and it sounds really silly. Sing-songy, but not in a good way. Imagine four year olds in a circle singing along to some early afternoon kid's show. You'd hear a song similar to this. It will be fun to hear live, but on the album it just sounds goofy.
They tone it down a few notches with "These Aren't Tears, They're Atom Bombs." Unexpectedly you hear female vocals with the second verse. Already I feel like this album came out during the wrong season. It's very early spring. There's an anticipation of summer, but a calm of showers, to give a happy tranquil medium.
In case you're unaware, impetuous means hasty. "Impetuous Me" is track four, and instead of claps, you've got snaps and it definitely works for them. It's really quite cute, " I just want to love you, I adore you." They also make use of their infamous layered vocals quite well in this song.
If you haven't heard, allusions are the hot new thing. There's an allusion to Judas in "If I Take This Sitting Down, Will You Promise To Leave On The Gloves?" That means someone is a cowardice traitor. Read up on your bible stories, kids. The last verse in this song is quite awkward but the sampling under it and after it is fun.
There's not a lot of bands that can harmonize the way The Apathy Eulogy can. They don't have excessive instrumentals or production to sync their voices. They're voices just lay perfectly on one another. It's quite soothing. The whispers words in "To Be Read In The Morning Directly After You Wake" is a bit cheesy but besides that, it's like a lullaby whisking you off to sleep.
I don't know how many of you picked up the Juno soundtrack, but it's very similar to this album. It's folky and choppy, scattered yet organized. It's very vulnerable, you feel like you just read someone's journal. Not their public blog, but the locked leather bound notebook under their pillow.
At a little over seventeen minutes, I can't say Introduction: Walk North When Winter Hits compared to the high energy of Beauty for Ashes but for what it is, it's a great album. It's aesthetically pretty, but no stand out track that defines the band.
4 out of 5 [CO]