Album Review: Terrace – As Far As The Night Can See
3 min read
“This sounds like something my grandmother would make on GarageBand,” was my initial thought upon hearing Terrace’s As Far as the Night Can See. Terrace, a group of newbies from Vancouver, BC, are clearly trying ever so hard to embrace themselves upon the world of electronic music with this, their debut album. Unfortunately what happens is nothing more than an amalgamation of sounds that comes across as being painfully outdated.
Browsing through Terrace’s bio, it’s made clear that the band gives no notice to genres or style. They look to employ their own unique sound. However, mostly everything on As Far as the Night Can See sounds like something that’s been done a hundred or more times already. Some tracks are reminiscent of The Killers, but the whole album sounds like it was made in 2003. I know nostalgia is in fashion these days, but the mismatched synths and obtrusive vocals don’t coincide to make anything worthwhile. Granted, there are moments of reprieve in which Terrace almost catch on to something great. The slow and ambient Souls in this City could have had its place on the soundtrack to Drive, If only the whole album could meet this one track’s momentum. Instead, the disc plays like a sloppy set from a battle of the bands contender.
Privilege might be the band’s closest shot at a glorified hit. It’s calm, and it works. While it does make use of more than a few unnecessary elements that don’t mesh well together the track weaves in and out of anthemic peppiness, which I can only assume is what the group was going for with this album as whole.
It just feels as though this album needed a bit more time in the shop before it was outputted to the world. It’s obvious the band have worked out percussion elements quite well. The drums consistently sound on point and in their place. The vocals are almost at this level as well, but ultimately seem to get lost in the mix. The guitars employed throughout the album give off an unwanted and undernourished sheen, ultimately forcing them to sound as though they’ve been ripped straight from the adult contemporary charts of the 1980s.
If this were the first time any band was making use of these sounds, I’m sure I would be a fan. Unfortunately, the same amateur sound has been heard in too many capacities over the past five years alone that it isn’t possible to pass it off as new and fresh anymore. Canada is home to a wealth of musical acts and artists and therefore the bar is set at a high level for anyone new looking to venture into our wilderness. With a little more practice, perhaps Terrace will be primed for the trek. But, with As Far as the Night Can See, there seems to be more ideas than there is substance.
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