The Forecast

Late Night Conversations (2005)

Scott

In attempts to continually diversify the label, Victory Records have inked the Forecast, a supple indie rock act playing in the vein of now-defunct Vagrant acts Hey Mercedes and the Anniversary. The Peroria, IL quartet deliver a male/female vocal punch on top of their Mid-Western guitars. The crafting of Late Night Conversations was aided in the studio by AJ Mogis and the influences from his past work with Bright Eyes and Cursive is slightly noticeable.

There is overwhelming potential for the Forecast to sound like a poor man's Spitalfield; however, three vocalists, including the female Shannon Burns, allow the group a significant level of creativity. Hampering that spirit is the vile recording quality on Burns' vocal tracks, as if her microphone is a tin can. The debut spans ten comfortable melodic tracks full of dual vocals, jingly guitars, and catchy chorus lines. While there are not many risks taken, the band certainly explore their talents, prevalent on "Excursive Demons" and "Sleep Tight Tonight," both tracks of which surpass six minutes and are not the most exciting, but retain interest.

Other notable standouts include their explosive introduction "Seating Subject To Availability" and "Fade In, Fade Out," an instant live hit by way of its chanting breakdown; both highlight the more upbeat moments for the Forecast and are sure to be found on a Victory Records sampler available this Summer. The title track "Late Night Conversations" is everything Midtown's last record wanted to be, but never quite achieved.

The Forecast still sound like an infantile band and often times their expanding musical style drys out of a few quality songs early on. Late Night Conversations is undoubtedly not one of 2005's pivotal releases, but for a debut it shows promise. Given the opportunity of better recording qualities and harnessing their abilities to write a solid guitar hook, Victory might have something on their hands, even though this is already superior to the majority of the music released on the label recently.