Album Review: La Dispute - Rooms Of The House

If you want to feel what life is like between North America's Great Lakes, then disappear into La Dispute's third LP. The stories told on Rooms Of The House are average tales. They're pulled from frontman Jordan Dreyer's life – his family, his friends, himself – and the commonality of the verses – coffee boiling on the stove, cutting his hair short – means there's something that relates to our own existence as well. Dreyer's subject matter is so specific that it's impossible not to quickly paint a picture, and it helps build his Rooms Of The House, and ours.

His spoken word/screamo delivery provides a full palate of emotion for the music to envelope around, and it does so with just as much nuance as the vocals. The two-part movement Woman (in mirror) and Woman (reading) is striking, with a beautiful guitar node that swells and swells until bursting climactically in the final stage of the reprise, while First Reactions After Falling Through The Ice is intelligent abrasion at its best.

The respect this music has been given by the considered production means that each element is captured to full effect. Every sound you hear is deliberate, and the flow of the record makes more sense with every listen. Rooms Of The House is an album that you'll keep coming back to, even if you're not quite sure why; there's just something homely here, something that you can relate to, which is why this incredible post-hardcore statement rings so true.