Music Review: The Dead Ships, EP I

By Tyler Hodg

Produced by Broken Social Scene’s Brendan Canning, The Dead Ships’ EP I is now available for those wishing to listen to some well-crafted and diverse tracks. Having one full-length album already under their belts, the Los Angeles band brings the heat once again with their latest release and it doesn’t take long to fall under its hypnotic spell; in fact, just one listen will do the trick.

The band has drawn comparisons to The Strokes and The Black Keys, but the similarities to those acts aren’t prevalent enough to hinder The Dead Ships from being a fairly unique group. One song in particular, “Floorboards,” is an idiosyncratic punk-rock song that showcases the diversity that the band displays. The song is a blessing and a curse: it’s so different that in a way, it feels out of place with the rest of the softer, indie-rock songs on the EP. Still, not releasing the song would have been a punishable crime (you know, in the rarely talked about songwriter’s jail).

Joking aside, this assessment is not to say that all of the other songs outside of “Floorboards” are copies of each other, because they aren’t. Opener “Big Quiet” is a big sounding new-wave track that shines bright thanks to melodic vocal lines. “Canyon” is an energetic, straight to the point rock song, while ”Seance” changes the EP’s gears once again with creepily dissonant choruses and oddly progressed verses. “Citycide” respectfully slows everything down with its drawn out vocals and adagio feel, and “Tomorrow’s Crashes” closes out the collection with an animated and retrospective essence that, in a way, is the perfect culmination of all the sounds of the songs that it preceded.

Short and sweet, EP I contains only six songs (and a radio edit of an already included song). The Dead Ships have a second EP waiting in the wings for a release. Although a full-length album would be nice, any music from this wonderfully talented group should be welcomed with open arms. The Dead Ships are a band that has already proven their worth, but will undoubtedly achieve more in their promising career.

EP I was released through Near Mess Records on May 5.