The JAR kicks off the year lost in some kind of woods! Trying to keep it relevant to new releases, this band name and album title seemed intriguing enough to give a listen to! Check it out.

Sometimes you have no plan going into the week and then you get graced with this monster of a title; and an overwhelming urge to know what the hell it could be. Given the fact the year isn’t more than a week old, there aren’t a ton of albums out yet, and the grander point of the JAR is to focus on new releases. While I could’ve gone into a retro review or something, I’m glad my hapless clicking found this.

This is only their third full length album, for a Canadian band with a lot of subgenre references. Let’s just say, they paint with a very wide brush on the progressive end while still mixing in distortion, 70s rock sounds and normal metal elements. I have no idea what to expect here, so let’s get down to it!

• Artist: Seven Nines and Tens
• Album: Over Opiated in a Forest of Whispering Speakers (2022)
• Label: Willowtip Records
• Total Track Time: 37:04

Popular Delusions is an interesting sound since it’s like a more distorted Alice in Chains with a touch of something like Deadeye Dick. Lyrically it’s seems to be relating common delusions to a fever dream or just one of those really deep conversations that you have with buddies around a bong, which ends up being circular logic and just making everyone feel like they had a good conversation. Not a bad thing by any means, just an amusing image I had in my head while this was playing. Throwing Rocks at Mediocrity the distorted vocals continue with the lyrics taking a cynical approach. However the musical breakdown after the first verse feels very White Stripes. There’s a line, something to the effect of “a better future is mocking you”, and the whole song feels almost like spiraling, but in this self-aware vacuum of complacency. Hard to really put my finger on things, but it’s been a trip so far.

Midnight Marauders feels like they were fans of the Megadeth album Risk. I’ve learned apparently the heavy distortion subgenre is referred to as Shoegaze (why I have no clue and am not looking up the etymology). Lyrics start faster in this song, and it goes from the slightly heavier elements to stripped down like 70s hard rock before coming back to more of an anthemic feeling. This song drifts between elements which gives each verse almost a unique feeling. Given the name of the album, and the concept of this song having to do with being pulled into a narcotic undertow, the music kinda of drifting, then getting heavier, just to change things up here and there fits the concept of fighting a current. Let’s Enjoy the Aimless Days While We Can I’m not gonna lie, I think this title is a little too fitting for the song. The ethereal nature of the lyrics, the fact the instruments seem to be drowning out the already distorted vocals more than the previous songs…makes this feel like it just kind of exists. I replayed it a few times and the opening line of being everywhere and nowhere is spot on, in a not exactly great way for this song.

Edutainment starts off completely differently than any other song. Instrumentally it feels like something I expected from Adema before hollowed out vocals start. Also while it started off with more of that alt-metal flair, it quickly becomes very sparse just to fire around with an odd drum driven instrumental breakdown. Another weird song. Fight for Your Right to Partial Relevance this goes for the 70s hard rock mixes but I think I’ve learned why this album is starting to lose me. The overall sardonic nature is basically the same as dark humor or “asshole humor” – so if you just continue with the same beat it becomes taxing. It wanders from clever or interesting to boring, depressed and unoriginal. Sunshine as if you couldn’t already guess, its melancholy embodied about losing our way or something. Also being the longest song on the album, it has moments where the music almost comes to a complete stop and just drifts with a little guitar picking before crashing back with distortion and drums.

So where to go with an assessment. While the music isn’t bad and even fuses in some club Jazz elements into the last song; this album feels like it was done by kids who thought they were smarter than everyone else so they just made snarky titles and went for the progressive/math nerd approach to music. This entire album kind of runs together, doesn’t really evoke anything beyond being cynical commentary on a world that’s lost its way or humanity that lost its way. Anyone alive in the last 3 years could’ve made that assessment as well. This feels like Jerry Seinfeld levels of observational humor where it states the obvious and for some reason people like that. Beyond me.

All in all, while I’ve soured, it’s not unlistenable. It’s just music while intoxicated, when you want to feel smart or just reflect on how the world sucks and no one listens to you. Now I think there’s still a New Year’s sale at Hot Topic, better go there before the capitalist conformists charge you more to express yourself.

Final Judgment: 5.25/10