The Telescope

Issue Date: 4/12/10

'Lowcountry' a high point for Envy on the Coast

By Alejandra Jackson

Media Credit: Courtesy Photo

From the first few bars of the opening track, it's apparent that "Lowcountry" isn't the typical hardcore album-twangy country strings give way to discordant metal riffs then back to country. So it's probably safe to say that three years after the release of their its album, "Lucy Gray," Long Island's Envy on the Coast has released an album no one saw coming.

Like the name suggests, a subtle yet pervasive southern theme is the album's defining characteristic and surprisingly it fits the band very well. Frontman Ryan Hunter's noticeably matured voice thrives against "Lowcountry's" slower pace.

The hidden track, "Just South of Heaven," brings to mind images of sweaty bodies swaying seductively in some backwater Louisiana bayou. Hunter croons "you dance and you sting just like the jellyfish do, yeah, down by the water where I'm from" with a voice that is selling sex almost as much as it's selling albums.

There is also a smart sense of self-awareness throughout the album. The first single, "Headfirst in the River" almost serves to remind listeners that this is not the same band that released "Lucy Gray." You can almost see Hunter smile as he stutters the line "these bones are mere acc-idents" in an obvious takeoff of "The Gift of Paralysis."

Occasionally the band ventures back into more familiar territory. "Laugh Ourselves to Death" and "The Great American T-Shirt Racket" are formulaic hardcore songs complete with shrieks and wails in all the right places-but that isn't to say they aren't good, at worst they just seem a little out of place with "Lowcountry's" tone.

"Lowcountry" isn't a rehash of "Lucy Gray" or a temporary distraction for hardcore devotees waiting for the second coming of seminal hardcore heroes, glassJAw, it's a whole other animal fully matured and ready to run.

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