Album Review: Art Vandelay - 'The Human Comedy'

Good name! Anyone who has ever watched Seinfield should check this band out purely based on their cool moniker. Whereas the rest of you….. You should just check out the band out because they’re amazing – plain and simple!

Hailing from Brisbane, QLD this young 3 piece are everything a rock band should be. Uncompromising, talented and passionate, their music speaks volumes about the band’s ability to pen a tune which is not only catchy but demonstrates substantial skill at their given instruments.

I’m still finding it difficult to accept that “The Human Comedy” is the band’s debut release. I can think of dozens of bands who spend years trying to write a CD as accomplished as this record and don’t come anywhere near the musicianship that Art Vandelay have produced.

The band’s sound takes in so many different elements yet it’s cohesive at the same time. If you could imagine the most melodic moments of At The Drive In, the ambience of Sigur Ros, the screeching of bands like Neil Perry and the epic walls of sound of Envy and Cult Of Luna you’d be getting to close to the Art Vandelay sound.

At no time on “The Human Comedy” do these different elements sound forced. The songs ebb and flow into one another to give the listener an album’s worth of music. This really is a CD you need to listen to in it’s entirety to do the band justice. No singles here – every song does its part to make the album what it is.

If you’re frustrated by how pretentious indie rock can be but you find a lot of heavy music overbearing then this CD is for you.

1. Donec Floruit
2. There Is More To Life Than New Curtains And A Clean Window
3. Fear And Loathing In Brisvegas
4. The Weather Report
5. Epicentre
6. His Shirt Is The Ocean: We Are But Fishes
7. Hope Still For The Penguin