[June 19th 2012 – Rise Records // Find it at: iTunes | Insound]
______________________________________________________________
A Make Do And Mend song is a study in itself. You can claim that it’s easy to dissect and categorize but most of the time it will dig into emotions you wish would never get the chance to breathe again. The Connecticut quartet’s sophomore record makes those experiences float to the surface and Everything You Ever Loved also does a good job of healing them with straightforward alternative. It’s not quite Fuel For The Hate Game or As The Eternal Cowboy, but Make Do And Mend find a way to strap together the smeared aggressiveness of both and make you sink into realizations like, “I’m going blind from staring at my feet” and “Take me somewhere where the summer never ends”, where the past and present illuminate each other. James Carroll’s voice carries a comforting dysfunctional quality, where sung words slowly burn into carving yells and seamlessly fall into the laps of distant chords, desperate tempos and textured ballads that scratch at the sincerity of punk and the intimacy of rock. Some songs lose their legs as the album spins on but the torching passion to the rush of “Count”, the warm touch of “Desert Lily” and the lung-blistering recording “Blur” twist Everything You Ever Loved to tug at your heart and be a cathartic way out.
Download: “Blur”, “Royal”, “Stay In The Sun”
[Find updates on new albums, daily music news and other things on Twitter]