One of the major low points of the past ten years in music is artists over reliance on very melancholic, non-eventful music that massively lacks the passion, emotion and, sad to say; talent that’s required to reproduce the power their predecessors were able to conjure. This is an all too common trend around the western world and Ireland is no exception. Unfortunately Changing Gear’s album, The End is a victim of this trend.
The Dublin four piece have released 12 tracks of fairly mediocre renditions of styles that have been deified by some and destroyed by others. The majority of the record sounds heavily under-produced and lifeless with tracks like ‘5past9’, ‘Don’t Worry’, ‘Wild Flowers’, ‘The End’ and several others sounding bland, out-of-tune in places and severely untested and under-worked. Most of this album just collapse upon itself and there’s an impression the band have either rushed recording it for the sake of having an album, chosen an unwise producer or simply, haven’t road tested the music on audiences to gauge the appeal.
There are some moments of hope, especially on ‘Conversations’, which pushes the band to give The End a temporary lease of life. ‘Squeeze me at the Brikhaus’ and ‘Call Me When You’re Down’ again show there’s more to this band when they try and add a ‘heartland rock’ edge to the record (aside from the needless harmonies on Call me When You’re Down).
With time, increased focus on their strong points and hard work there could be something to Changing Gears; but they haven’t achieved it here. If things don’t improve then the album’s title is very apt for the bands future.