Downers of the World Unite
Digital Teens EP / Nothing Looks Good (2010)
Brian Shultz
Downers of the World Unite issued two digital releases on one day courtesy of Thinker Thought Records: the Digital Teens EP and a full-length dubbed Nothing Looks Good. The EP is new stuff, providing a few interesting developments in the band's sound, while Nothing Looks Good is a digital reissue of the band's 2007 LP.
For the Digital Teens EP, Downers come up with a choppy, scrappy hardcore sound that's difficult to pin down. Comparisons are hard to come by for a few tracks, but "Meet Me at the Olive Branch" is a screamy, smoky slow-burner that could be a more straightforward outtake from Fear Before's Art Damage, and the off-key melodic singing in "The Great Apartment Fire" should bring that to mind as well. Other times the band takes on a more traditional hardcore sound with sparse elements of rock'n'roll and metallic edges, with thrashy, looser elements that wouldn't put them totally out of place with newer bands like Troublemaker or maybe even Mountain Man (however less refined and rutted their sound might be).
As mentioned, Nothing Looks Good sounds like it dates a bit earlier from in their recording. It's far more simpler and less rock'n'roll-oriented than Digital Teens, and it's less enticing as a result. The band still manage some experimental maneuvers, but it ranges in quality, from the extended instrumental break in "New Order and I" to the questionable metal riffing in "Aquaholic". Overall, it's definitely rougher than the far newer and more interesting material. The breakdown in "Teenager" feels clunky,
In conclusion: Digital Teens might be worth a run-around, but skip Nothing Looks Good, despite its invitingly warm cover art.