!ATTENTION!

Item: Another Year [7-inch]
Rating: 8
Author: Sloane Daley

Another Year [7-inch] (2011)

Sloane Daley

The thing I find so captivating about Toronto's !ATTENTION! isn't that they blend desperate styles of music, it is the fact that they blend styles that are aesthetically similar but rarely combined. Their latest seven-inch, Another Year, continues their fine tradition of bringing melodic hardcore that hearkens back to '90s touchstones and infuses it with bleak Midwest-esque pop-punk. What comes out ends up being something that embraces their hardcore side a little more but at the same time showcases some of their poppiest material yet.

Something that becomes instantly apparent with the one-two punch of "âYour' Is The New You're'" and "When Life Hands You Lemmings" is that vocally !ATTENTION! have really come into their own. From their demo to now, Glenn Barrington's voice has gone from almost overpowering the songs to being wonderfully representative of the band's whole sound. A voice that is gruff-as-all-hell-get-out but weaves some incredibly sweet melodies. They have also taken more time arranging the backup vocals to create an engaging contrast between the other members and Glenn's bark, whether it be simple backing shouts on "âYour' Is The New âYou're'" or the gang vocals on "Shirts Off, Party On" or the irresistible woah-ohs on "Greetings From Dufferin Grove Park".

While there are certainly contrasts going on, !ATTENTION! use them in relation to each other. One aspect tempers another, never letting things change too abruptly and become jarring that a lot of melodic hardcore bands seem to be doing these days. Take the way the guitar intro is repeated in the closing moments of the song and the way it intentionally loses signal the way it does at certain times in the body of the rest of the song.

This is !ATTENTION!'s best work to date and it should satisfy any fan of the band or new convert alike. If you are looking for some of the better melodic hardcore/pop-punk tunes this year, look no further because Another Year has them in spades and probably clovers too.