The Complaints latest CD Talk To Me is loaded with fun, pop-rock ditties. This Providence, Rhode Island-based band plays a kind of 1990s influenced indie rock that makes the most of large acoustic guitar sweeps, emotive keyboard work, and a groove that can smack or simmer underneath a large tuft of upper register magic.
“The View” opens this album with Dean Petrella’s smooth as Jack vocal finessing his street poet lyricism. Once that voice lures you in, you will likely find the soothing, understated guitar work equally likable. The groove moves like a slow, crawling snake, strong, deliberate, with a path all its own. The overall effect is one cool song with a fantastic vibe.
“Hangin’ Out” furthers The Complaints ability to build a vibe as well as play a catchy, engaging song. The easeful, handsome vocal glide moves over the instrumentation with carefully, considered phrasing. Beneath the voice we find an understated guitar picking and fingering style, also from Petrella. He makes it sound like his guitar is planting a tender kiss on the groove. He lets out just enough of his brittle guitar line to keep this song carefree and mellow. The effect is tremendous.
“Atlas (Carry You)” gets a flavoring of 1990s acoustic-electric guitar marriages. The acoustic strum is wide and emotive. The keyboard work surrounding the acoustic is a majestic swirl that makes one imagine people playing on a magic cloud. It has a dreamy, floating, and large feeling that caries the listener along like a sweet dream. It doesn’t hurt that an electric guitar line opens wide like a lasso before tightening around a perfectly flowing groove.
Title track “Talk To Me” swaggers in coolly with easeful vocalizing, a slip, sliding guitar line, and a lilting groove that encourages the listener to take this walk with the band. Petrella’s honey smooth voice coats this one well, his sustains sounding like something rock vocalists wish they could do. It’s uncanny, too, how well bass player Chris Cruz and drummer Anthony Marotti create a groove that support the emotive strength of the song without overwhelming the sensitive, artistic touches occurring above their playing.
“Wouldn’t Change A Thing” waves a breezy vocal and sweeping guitar strum over a smacking groove. The contrast makes this song feel large, in motion, and we can feel it taking us some place special. Petella’s voice swings over a guitar ripple too, increasing the song’s emotive scope and offering more of that voice, a voice that compels people to follow its honey flow.
“Breathe” does exactly that. These musicians give themselves a lot of breathing room here. The vocals feel free and the acoustic guitar strum feels large by not trying to be expansive. An electric guitar line spirals upward in wispy bits. This light indie pop makes the successful musicianship of this band seem easy. Every part comes together like innocuous gases forming into one unit, a unit that moves like a glider plane through a clear sky.
Piano ballad “Home” closes out the official album with the most personal, reflective song on this CD. Petrella sings this one with lofty intent, a swelling of lift, letting his smooth vocal spread out more with sparse accompaniment. His vocal carries this one extremely well while indicating how he can reach the listener’s tender spot with his sensitive melodic rendering on piano.
The final track “The View (Dark) returns us to the beginning of the album with this eerie, edgy remix of the opening track. This “View,” with Petrella’s dark, haunted vocal timbre and Marotti’s sudden drum marches, gives the song a harrowing vibe that intimates a dire fate. It’s a fantastic remix of the original “View” and it goes a long way toward showing how well this band can conjure feeling and set a scene.
The Complaints recorded this immensely satisfying album at The Shop in Cranston, Rhode Island. This disc will certainly strengthen the band’s bond with its long time fans while finding them plenty of new ones. Listeners will likely play it multiply times to take in the all the fine ambient qualities.
