Having dropped the trademark piano out of the mix and replaced it with lush and icy keyboards,
the Kilowatthours
, if anything, seem more sure of themselves as songwriters and arrangers. The band is now moving toward a more pronounced
Radiohead
sensibility, with
Trevor Kampmann
(aka
HollAnd
) starring as its
Nigel Godrich
in the creation of pensive and paranoid soundscapes, full of angular guitar eruptions and rising and falling drumming paired with memorable yet simple hooks. As such,
The Bright Side
comes off as the album that
spent the most time laboring in the studio over, as their entire dynamic appears more refined and mature. So even if the qualities that previously made them stand out from the pack (i.e., the reliance on piano) are now somewhat muted,
emerge having moved their craft ahead in the process. ~ Matt Fink