Ageless Males

FFO: Everyone Everywhere, Prawn, By Surprise, American Football

Standout songs: Henn / Over My Head / Call It America

A.M. is the debut EP from Cleveland, Ohio’s Ageless Males. The three-piece play a slow building style of indie-pop that flirts subtly with melancholic-emo tendencies. About Dying is the first of six tracks and the Everyone Everywhere-esque guitars create a great sound with the warm bass bringing an audible bounce beneath. The whispery vocals manage to sound both coolly apathetic and heartbroken at the same time and add an atmosphere to the bands style. Second track Henn features soft, skeletal guitars that are accompanied by the distant thump of the bass drum whilst the lyrics are sung low with an ache of shyness to them. Soon after the song has begun the saddened hum of a trumpet joins in the background which brings bands such as American Football to mind. About halfway through the bass and the drums take up more of a structure and the song approaches a shimmering, beautiful closure with the vocals echoing around your ears.

Sparkly is another song I really enjoyed. The drums keep a consistent framework from start to finish whilst the guitar leads the vocals and bass onwards through fragile melodies before crossing into the fourth track, Over My Head, which is one of the strongest songs on the whole EP. It starts off with gently played drums and guitars and ever so patiently builds up to a fantastic crescendo and catchy chorus ("Cause I’m in over my head. I’m in and over it, I’m in over it!"). Call It America is another highlight and one of the more upbeat sounding songs. The bass balances things out well against the dancey guitar chords before bouncing into one of the catchiest choruses on the EP. No Water is the shortest track at 2:18 and brings things to an end. The hazy vocals sit comfortably with the finger-picked acoustic guitar and together they create an incredibly emotive vibe with the light harmony of a keyboard coating it all.

I’m honestly struggling to find anything negative to say about this EP. Ageless Males style is somewhat understated and quiet, but for those reasons all the more bewitching. They’ve made a solid first release yet I feel they’ve left themselves enough room to build upon in future efforts. I don’t know what these guys plan on doing in the future, but I personally would love to hear more from them.

Also, you can download the EP for just $2 on their Bandcamp!

Links: Bandcamp / Facebook

(Source: outofsightzine) - "out of sight zine" by Woody Delaney