Listener is one of those bands that you just cannot passively listen to. They beg you to pay attention.

“Losing makes you grow! Do you want to lose with me?” begs the band in “Good News First.” Yes, the whole band is asking you this – the music has a sense of urgency. It’s not terribly heavy but the tension is palpable. The band spends a lot of their time exploring what it actually means to “lose” and they want you and I on that journey with them.

I’m hesitant to reveal too much about the content of this album, but I’ll give you a few highlights. “Tornadoes” takes a while to build up, giving us a deceptively tranquil mood for nearly the first half of the song. It’s only when we hear the sheer brashness of the vocals when they burst onto the scene that we understand what the band is going for. “OK. I feel like I’ve always had a tornado inside of me. You have it inside of you. Just sometimes it doesn’t move. I sort of bloom late, but I know it’s still there.” Indeed. The song “blooms” late and communicates the stillness that can come in the midst of internal chaos well. The whole thing comes to a head in the following song “I Think It’s Called Survival,” which is unapologetically in your face and more what you may have expected from the previous song.

I think Listener’s message can be best summed up in the final stanza of album closer “It Will All Happen the Way It Should.”:

If you’ve taken yourself underwater and you aren’t breathing, and you are drowning in your life, there’s something more. Just hold on, there’s a way out, it’s all happening the way it should. If you’re underwater and you aren’t breathing there’s more of that.

What do you think that means?

I’ll close with these thoughts on Time Is A Machine: I’m saddened that it took me so long to heed the refrain of recommendations pointing toward this band. I went to their show last year based on sheer word of mouth. If I had been familiar with the words, perhaps I would have been more entranced by the show.

I’ll have a chance to redeem myself on July 26th. And you can bet I’ll be spinning this album on the regular to prep for that show.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zaL8iFTUWyc[/youtube]

Listener: iTunes | Official site