Welcome -- Sirs

Eclectic, but cohesive guitar-rock album. Welcome rocks like The Strokes, but with much more obvious influences. Sometimes with a touch of The Beatles, sometimes with a touch of The Rolling Stones, or Bob Dylan, or Iggy Pop, Welcome’s album Sirs is a mostly entertaining, ambitious ride that only occasionally leaves the listener confused or disoriented. FCC CLEAN!

*1. Fast, driving, grungy guitars with hints of 60’s rock vocals. (2:55)
2. Medium paced, fairly short track clearly influenced by early punk rock. (1:43)
3. Slower song with female vocals. Sounds more like a setup than a punchline. (1:54)
**4. If the Beatles and Weezer had teamed up, this song would be theirs—medium pacing with some crazy guitar and possibly synthesizer work over meandering vocals and extended instrumental sequences. (4:12)
*5. Fast, choppy, disorganized rock song, but with some catchy guitar and vocal work (1:35)
6. Medium paced repetitive guitars with lackadaisical vocals and some crazy guitar noises. (3:00)
7. Female vocals move smoothly over the verse, complete with “Oo’s”, up until the chorus, when the band is overrun by what sounds like an emergency broadcast alarm, drowning out the music and bafflingly hiding what could have been a catchy chorus. This song never really builds up to the point that it feels like it was going to. (2:58)
8. Mixing up guitar rhythms and vocal patterns, with unexpected changes, stops, and starts, an ambitious track that feels a little too self-conscious of it’s ambitiousness. (4:17)
*9. Grungy guitars keep relatively in sync with the bass and drums that drive this song. (2:07)
**10. Poppy-track made less so by a “noise” mask on top of parts of it. Integrates female and male vocals for the only time on the album and the lead singer channels Kurt Cobain for brief moments, but somehow, it all works effectively. (3:24)

Reviewed by Witz