Genre/Influences: New-wave-rock, post-punk, punk-metal, crossover, shoegaze.
Background/Info: The Rain And The Sidewalk is mainly a solo-project driven by Trevor M. Thompson. I honestly can’t remember to have ever heard of this Vancouver-based (Canada) multi-instrumentalist who already released a few earlier productions on which he sometimes invited guest singers like on the cool indie-pop driven “Stuck”-EP. This new album is mainly available at digital platforms, but a few CD-copies are available as well.
Content: After I’ve heard the “Stuck”-EP (2011) I was rather confident to discover a new entertaining indie-pop driven work. “Nadir” has less in common with this previous work and rather sounds as an exploration of new-wave and rock music with some extra influences on top. The point is that the work rapidly becomes versatile now moving into post-punk and even metal fields and later on experimenting with a kind of shoegaze-ballads.
The work clearly reflects dark elements and themes of sadness. One of the main elements is the male vocals by Trevor M. Thompson and that’s a radical change with previous work I heard which featured female guest singers. This album however reveals a few songs with guest musicians and singers as well.
+ + + : Diversity often is the best remedy to avoid monotony and that’s for sure an aspect I appreciate on “Nadir”. One of the best cuts is the more into ‘happy’ rock sounding “Driftwood” reminding me of bands like The Housemartins.
– – – : I for sure like the diversity of “Nadir”, but unfortunately the different influences can’t convince me. It all sounds unaccomplished and globally speaking under-produced. One of the major elements is the vocals, which are less passionate and simply insufficient.
Conclusion: Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose… I’m afraid “Nadir” is not exactly an album that will enter into the collective mind of dark underground music freaks.
Best songs: “Driftwood”, “Sappy Love Ballad”.
Rate: (4).
Band: www.therainandthesidewalk.com / www.facebook.com/The–Rain–and–the–Sidewalk-366204233794
Since you’re here … … we have a small favour to ask. More people are reading Side-Line Magazine than ever but advertising revenues across the media are falling fast. And unlike many news organisations, we haven’t put up a paywall – we want to keep our journalism as open as we can. So you can see why we need to ask for your help. Side-Line’s independent journalism takes a lot of time, money and hard work to produce. But we do it because we want to push the artists we like and who are equally fighting to survive. If everyone who reads our reporting, who likes it, helps fund it, our future would be much more secure. For as little as 2 US$, you can support Side-Line Magazine – and it only takes a minute. Thank you. The donations are safely powered by Paypal.
