The Shining Hours - Dead Batteries EP

The Shining Hours

Dead Batteries EP
self-released; 2017

3.5 out of 5

By Rebecca Rothschild

Out of the hotbed of musical talent that is Brooklyn comes The Shining Hours with their first three-track EP Dead Batteries. The band is an alt-indie rock quartet that have been collaborating together for about five months, probably more once this review is up. They have been making the rounds with live gigs and there is a lot of their live performance element in this album. The music is an interesting mix of hard and soft, sometimes combined together.

The first track on the album is "Dead Batteries" and it's anything but dead. It's hard, fast, a little on the punk rock side and musically works really well. I like how the bass and drums play off of one another to create heavy rhythmic tension. The guitar is a voice all unto itself. Speaking of voice, I struggled a little bit with the vocal work on this song. For the most part it's more scream/shout stuff, but when notes are hit they just didn't land well for me.

It came off as sounding prepubescent and shrunk the heaviness of the music. I was also struggling to hear the vocals and lyrics, which is surprising given the singing style. The audio production on this song was unfortunately sub-par. I understand there is supposed to be a live tone to this, but I was struggling to hear what I needed to hear. I am all for a live sounding album, but the mixing style for how this particular track was done was not my favorite.

"Emily's Head" almost felt like a complete 180 from what I just heard with "Dead Batteries." The tone of the music is a lot campier and feels decidedly indie. The production is miles above what I got with the previous track and the vocals are fantastic. He hit some gorgeous notes. I literally had to stop and make sure I was listening to the same band. This time around I could hear everything in perfect balance. Best of all, I could make out the lyrics, and they're good! Like, blew my mind good. Despite being mixed in clearly a different style, the song maintained rough, reverby edges and a live feel. This track is easily my favorite.

The final track is "Retrograde" and I struggled a bit with this one too. The audio production is about on par with the second track which is a good thing. Once again the cool lyrics were coming through without a problem. However musically it felt a little conflicted. It felt as though the there was an attempt to blend the two very different styles from tracks one and two. I imagine bridging that gap is possible, just not this particular execution. Half of the time I loved the lyrics, but there were moments where once again I would hear notes that just stuck out like sore thumbs. 

I think The Shining Hours have a lot of potential and presented some good stuff in Dead Batteries. I may not have fully appreciated everything they did, but it was interesting, and there was enough there to enjoy. Considering the band has not been together for even a full year I think it's impressive that they chose to release an EP now. I would love to hear what comes when they've been together for a little while longer.

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