Take One Car
When the Ceiling Meets the Floor (2009)
Brian Shultz
Take One Car reside in the realm of relatively dark, layered post-hardcore--right out of the Thursday mold--but definitely with some extra elements that help their full-length, When the Ceiling Meets the Floor make a decent--if not altogether faulty--impact.
After a fairly strong, searing scream-laced intro in "Chapter 1: The Ceiling" comes "Jesus Symbiote" and its pained, melodic choruses. As much as they resemble some of the more recent Thursday albums, they provide some of the most compelling and memorable moments of the entire album, which is unfortunate because they come so early. The hooks aren't as prevalent as the other songs come and go; the band seem to bail on ideas a bit too quickly, and it leaves Floor a little bit forgettable and in nagging disarray. Riffs swirl and clout with a number of pedal effects, but they never really take the songs anywhere. After those first few tracks it all begins to go adrift in a sea of stop-start riffing and corroded atmosphere. It's just erratic.
"Melk," admittedly, is sort of an interesting detour as their vocalist takes more of a muttered approach and the guitars lumber and lurk throughout--it's definitely kind of a Far or Failure-type thing. The repeated hooks in "Die Again, Mortimer, Die Again! (I'm Not Dead)" resemble a more accessible take on the earlier Trophy Scars stuff, but the potential goodness is dulled when the band goes overboard on the closing screams. And then they do that very thing, albeit in a more comical way, on a hidden track.
There's a handful of times on When the Ceiling Meets the Floor where Take One Car write something truly realized and well-formed, but too often the song gets stuck or misguided by having no real direction to where a certain part, verse or riff is actually going. It can be frustrating and it's largely their singular downfall.