The Corridors - Our Days Our Nights

The Corridors

Our Days Our Nights
Grace Media Music; 2015

3.9 out of 5

By Mike Przygoda

Our Days Our Nights by The Corridors is a striking, moving piece of art. The group blends acoustic and electronic elements together in a very successful way. The songwriting and arrangements are very clever and are a great study in contrast.

The best song on the album is “Seconds and Frames” which blends acoustic guitars with the piano and organ as well as a Billy Corgan-esque vocal. It’s a very moving performance and has a very strong chorus.  The Smashing Pumpkins Adore-era vibe continues on “Riding On The Sun,” which is a great example of contrasting the openness and space in the melody and chord progression of the beginning of the song to a more driving percussive section towards the middle. It also really shows off the range of the cello, which plays some beautiful lyrical high parts as well as some resonant C-string pedal tones.  “The Rage Of The Storm” opens with multi-tracked strings, which return ebbing and flowing between certain verses giving a very celestial feel.  In another example of contrast, dropping the instrumental solo down to just one single line on the cello gives a very intimate emotional sense.

After a melancholic cello and piano opening, “Free Spirit” opens up into a plaintive vocal occasionally joined by a choir of backing voices.  Slowly, guitars, tambourines, and other instruments are introduced building on the energy and pulse of the music and pushing it along. The title track is a haunting piece full of tubular bells, synths, giant power chord guitars, swelling organs and siren like noises rising and falling.  The soundscape is clever and enveloping. “Grace” incorporates electronic flourishes, heavy piano chords, music boxes, and a cantabile cello line. “For Tomorrow From Today” moves from sad ballad to some Beatle-esque chord progressions and has some nice combinations of organ playing alongside the cello that sums up to an even better sound.

The album closes with “Sophia,” which adds accordion and mandolin to the mixture of instruments, giving more of a folk sound to the album. It’s an interesting way to close, and The Corridors pull it off successfully, adding some bluesy notes to the solos and keeping time with a tambourine.  It’s a peek behind the electronic veil and the secret to the success of all of these songs, the human element.

The contrast of acoustic and electronic sounds, of space and limitations, and of epic and intimate space are all synthesized by The Corridors very, very well.  As they continue, it would be nice to hear them also contrast some of the feels of the songs by adding a variety of tempos and pulses.

Become A Fan

Tweet