First track ‘Pyromaniac’ is the most powerful of the album, the story and the melody are very gripping, all together balanced by the lead singer, Ryan McGlone’s high pitched voice.
The album is split in two parts, from one side we have a couple of lo-fi/post rock tracks (‘Plans’, ‘High Regard’) and on the other side we have a bunch of more ballad driven (‘Hotel Room’, ‘I Get So Cold I Get Nervous’).
The band seems to take a shot at different musical genres (from lo-fi to indie-pop to slow paced tracks), maybe a little too many, but let’s not forget that this is a first album.
Considering this the sound of the entire album is surprising, the arrangements are very well laid out from the beginning to the end, the reverberation is clear and innocent.
The band manages to create some raw gems, for example the eponym track of the album ‘The Distance Tricked Us’, a well crafted song that delivers a proper hint to what these guys are capable of, while ‘Splinter’ echoes as the heart of the album, merging heavy melody and powerful lyrics.
McGlone symbolizes the band’s journey in final song ‘Deconstruct the Familiar’ when he opens with: “I know we might start small, we’ve got big plans on the go…”
The band manages to conjure up some good vibrations without exploring deeper; the album is the reflection of a band that played it safe, surprising as they are musically interesting and lyrically talented, they have this joyful simplicity and I am sure that their greatest album is ahead of them.
Words: Jeremy Veyret
