Album Review: Lansing Dreiden - The Dividing Island

Here we go with the first album review on La Bodega. Lansing-Dreiden's new album, The Dividing Island, focuses on the best aspects of their initial release The Incomplete Triangle. Instead of trying to cover too much ground, they seem to focus more on the upbeat sunny pop from their EP and 80s new-wave sounds from the first album. Look to "A Line You Can Cross" and "Two Extremes" for the new wave influences. "Cement to Stone" and "Our Next Breath" could be included on a soundtrack to your summer with their upbeat, Beach Boys, like sound. The band does somewhat of a 180 on the closer "Dethroning the Optimyth" - an intense closer with a Slayer-like metal guitar riff. The track would not have worked anywhere else on the album aside from the finale. You can consider these guys pretentious if you would like (they do not pulicize any of the names from the band and haven't done any kind of tour even after 2 full albums and 1 ep), but if you look past all that and simply pay attention to the music, you will find something quite ambitious and unique.

My rating - 7.5/10