Peter Wolf Crier - Garden of Arms

As far as I can tell, none of the songs have any objectionable content

On Peter Wolf Crier’s second LP, the guitar and drum duo attempt to change their sound, apparently going for a more experimental vibe than their debut album, Inter-Be. Peter Pisano and Brian Moen, far from other such combos like The White Stripes and The Black Keys, sound more like a generic, distorted indie folk band than a bluesy force of rock. Garden of Arms, while not terrible, fails to distinguish itself from countless other standard rock albums. Tinny snares play alongside a distorted acoustic guitar and vocal lines that all blur together indistinctively, with lyrics such as “All the inches flow/see me on the wall/take and you leave/all the inches flow” that appear to be far deeper than they actually are. Not to imply that the album is bad or won’t have its fans, for there are a few standout tracks, such as the fourth song Krishnamurti, an intense (compared to the rest of the songs) rocker that manages to form a relatively powerful hook. Several of the later songs, such as Never Meant to Love You and Wheel, manage to close the album in a genuinely emotional fashion, proving that the band is capable of greatness if they only spent more time trying to just be themselves then “experiment”. Still, I wouldn’t recommend this album; there are plenty of better things to listen to.

-Jon Raeder