Milwaukees - This Is A Stick Up!

  by Olga Sladeckova

published: 6 / 4 / 2003

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Review

The Milwaukees are one of the many artists releasing records at the moment on the London-based label Boss Tuneage records. Based in New Jersey, the band also puts out records on the Canadian label Does Everyone Stare. 'This Is A Stickup' is the band's latest full length release. Vocals start off you with the first track of the album, 'Angel With A Knife'. Music joins in quickly. Rousing guitars that have been blurred together with drums literarily storm in. It's difficult to follow the Milwaukees lyrics. Their vocals mostly remain on the same volume as the music. The singer's voice also appears slightly foggy which fits the music perfectly. Listening to 'Harpoon' you can just dream away to it and enjoy the soft sounds of bass guitars. 'Call An Ambulance' and 'Desperate Comeback' are probably the slowest songs of the album. Using the minimum of drum beats their slow pace is set by the guitars and bleak vocals. The whole album comes across as similarly slow and dark. 'Jazz Is' is very calm at the beginning. Then the music builds up into feedback towards the end and closes the album dropping downonce more to quiet. 'This Is A Stickup' is well structured album. All 11 tracks relate to each other well with their low-key approach, but they also each are capable of pushing the volume up. This, however, makes the album a little too predictable.

Track Listing:-

1 Angel With a Knife
2 Jet Clipper
3 Lighthouse Signals
4 Berlin Wall
5 A Harpoon
6 Call an Ambulance
7 Medicine Hat
8 Without a Blanket
9 Thinking Like a Genius
10 Desperate Comeback
11 Jazz Is