Album Review: Ceres - 'Drag It Down On You'

Our homegrown talents have been absolutely killing it lately. Osaka Punch, Plini, Columbus, The Great City, Slowly Slowly, Twelve Foot Ninja, The Amity Affliction, and Pretty City are just a few Aussies bands with terrific new releases out this year. (I’ll let you figure out which band was the joke inclusion in that list). However, “Australian music” or “local music” are not genres; they are mere geographical descriptions. So don’t ever assume that simply because a band is from the motherland that us Aussies must instantly love them in some misguided sense of nationalistic musical pride. After all, if that was a universal law, that would mean I’d have to say nice things about Capture The Crown and the new Tonight Alive album and that is never. Ever. Fucking. Happening.

However, for my money, Melbourne’s Ceres haven't had any miss-steps in their career thus far and their second album, ‘Drag It Down On You’, continues that excellent track record. Now, when I first gave this record a spin I noticed that it was 14 tracks long. At first, I thought that may have been pushing it a bit for the listeners, even for fans like myself. With this being their longest album to date, I was worried the longer run time may cause the record to stumble towards the end. But boy, was I fucking wrong! These 14 songs only left me wanting even more from this Melbourne quartet, and I didn't think that it was even possible for me to love this band any further at this point. I guess this is how Death Grips fans feel whenever that band does literally anything.

For those unaware, Ceres dynamically weave simple but superb melodies with distorted, fuzzy rock instrumentation across their pop-rock, emo sound and it's utterly sublime. It never once feels like they are phoning in to simply appease anyone else but themselves. Whether it's in the lyrics or the instrumentals, when you listen to Ceres, you're listening to honesty and a band that knows who and what they are. This is a natural-sounding, down-to-earth record, and there's no gimmick here. There is no bullshit when it comes to this band, it's members and their sound. 'Drag It Down On You' has the band's Aussie rock charm and aesthetic through and through, and it's just so genuine that I found it nigh on impossible to stop listening. Seriously, trying to tear myself away from listening to this record only caused me to have severe separation anxiety. Seriously, trying to tear myself away from listening to this record only caused me to have severe separation anxiety.

From the heartfelt, low-key album intro of 'Okay' and emo anthem 'Happy In Your Head', to the album's snow-building, emotionally charged penultimate song, 'Del-Del', and the intense finale of 'Baby's Breath' - there's no filler to be found here. This record flows at such a solid, consistent pace, that it's all over before you know it. The noisy, guitar-heavy finale of 'Spinning Wheel', the wonderful slow build up of 'Choke', the entirety of 'Loaf'; the middle portion of this record is crammed full of so many stellar moments that you won't be able to keep count. Even the shorter respites of 'Loner Blood' and 'Us' don't feel like throwaway songs, but integral pieces of the puzzle. It really seems that guitarist/vocalist/porno moustache extraordinaire, Tom Lanyon, guitarist Rhys Vleugel, bassist Grant Young, and drummer Frank Morda can strike musical gold in any given scenario.

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Sure, 'Drag It Down On You' isn't some giant conceptual think-tank, but that's not a criticism at all. If every record was like Pink Floyd's 'The Wall', I would have had a brain aneurysm long ago. Now, whether or not the larger J-crowd jumps on this one and pushes it's consecutive air time and launches Ceres' popularity into the stratosphere, this album will still be the benchmark that the rock and indie music crowd should be held to from now on. It was always going to be hard to top their debut record, 'I Don't Want To Be Anywhere But Here', but sweet baby Jesus, Ceres have done just that.

Here’s the shortest conclusion I have ever written for KYS; this album is really fucking good and you should go buy it. Alright! That's enough dick-riding of Ceres for one day, review over.