Review by Shannon Shumaker
The Plot In You are reborn on their new album DISPOSE, and with it they deliver some of their most emotional and groundbreaking songs yet. Carried by dissonant guitars, explosive choruses and Landon Tewers’ trademark dynamic vocals, DISPOSE feels like therapy as it chronicles the disintegration and ultimately the end of a relationship as the band picks up the pieces and continues to push forward. These songs are massive, angry and aggressive at the surface, but when you dig a little deeper, you’ll find quite a bit of light and hope in DISPOSE, making it well worth more than one listen.
Haunting and dark, the album’s opening track, “RIGGED” is the catalyst that really gets things started. It’s slow and eerie, but most importantly, full of fire. The push and pull between quiet moments and explosions of sound or soft, trembling clean vocals and aggressive screams is incredible. And from there, things just keep getting better.
Easily one of the strongest aspects of DISPOSE is Tewers’ stellar vocal performance. He doesn’t need to scream to get his point across, but when he does, it contrasts beautifully with raw, emotional clean vocals. This coupled with intimate and personal lyrical content makes for a very powerful listen. In “NOT JUST BREATHING,” it can be heard in lines like, “At least I know I’m alive,” and “ONE LAST TIME” is established as one of the most hopeful songs on the album in the powerful line, ““I’ve seen the light / But never felt this close / Push my pain aside…” Despite how dark and desolate some of these songs feel instrumentally, there’s definitely quite a bit of light and hope in there, too.
And instrumentally, DISPOSE certainly shines, too. Although it can feel a little muddy at times, the album feels well written and well rounded as a whole. The cinematic “I ALWAYS WANTED TO LEAVE” is a standout while “THE ONE I LOVED” feels drastically different from the songs that surround it. Despite its catchier, lighter tone, “THE ONE I LOVED” still finds a place on DISPOSE as lyrically, it still fights with the same demons as the songs before it.
There’s a perfect balance between light and dark on DISPOSE as a whole. While the first half of the album is very explosive, aggressive and angry, the second half feels like healing. Songs like “FEEL NOTHING” express resentment and apathy while “THE SOUND” and “DISPOSABLE FIX” provide listeners with a hopeful ending to the journey. The Plot In You have risen from the ashes with DISPOSE and have grown immensely while doing so. Larger than life and full of emotion, DISPOSE is easily one of The Plot In You’s strongest releases yet.
LISTEN TO “ONE LAST TIME” “THE ONE I LOVED” or “DISPOSABLE FIX”
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