Darker My Love

Darker My Love really have this quality of mystery to them. A dark aura, that really shrouds the entire band in their songs in a cloud of sorts.

It’s moody music, and vocalist Tim Presley’s voice, even when the tempo is kicked up a little bit, has such a melancholic, Robert Smith-esque feel to it. The rest of the musicians follow suit as well, each chord having extremely dark tones, the bass is deep and the drums slow and calculated. It’s methodical, mechanical, but strangely full of emotion. It’s almost a paradox, but one that isn’t full understood until the third track, as the first, although in keeping with the same vocal style is full of swarming dissonance.

The title track “Summer Is Here” is an uptempo, rocking track with jangly riffs and pounding drums, and the vocals, sounding still very dark and morose, appear in a very understated light. Almost lost completely under the fuzz and feedback, the followup track, “Helium Heels,” is a mostly instrumental track in which the vocals at the beginning are barely audible, opting instead to focus on all the cymbal crashes and heavy guitar fuzz. What can be made out of the vocals though, in contrast to the actual music, is extremely drawn out and depressing, but after about half the track it’s all instrumental, and it’s all loud, while managing to maintain that sort of distant, mysterious quality that the final song, “Catch,” really explores.

The slow, sprawling track offers a much more reserved, much darker look at the band's songwriting, and again here, the vocals are light and haunting, while everything else takes on a much darker tone than before, and this seems to be where they really feel most comfortable. The brooding melody is as engaging as each of the other two songs, although their ability to change things up bodes well for their overall songwriting craft.

Only three songs, yes, but three very enjoyable songs that should strike a chord with a lot of people.