Dead Man on My Back: Shine Honesty Revisited

Quiet Company are an Indie Rock band from Texas, and this record is actually a re-recorded version of their debut album "Shine Honestly". To preface, I have never listened to that album before, so what I can say in comparison to that one is not much. I will simply be reviewing the music as is presented to us.

Quiet Company's music is a nice blend of chamber pop and pop rock with lush instrumentation full of piano, guitar and string accompaniment from time to time. Lead vocalist Taylor Muse's singing can range from soft and soothing, to rowdy shouts of intense emotion during certain songs as well. All of this blended together makes for a rather engaging listen with peaks and valleys of musical expression.

Take the opening track, this intro builds up to a grand finish which leads into the first proper track "Fashionable" rather well. This song is a catchy and upbeat rock tune to set the mood just right, showing off their knack for hooks backed by thoughtful songwriting and jaunty piano-laden rock instrumentation. "Well Behaved Women" is also a decent song, but a bit of a slower ballad. The lyrics are quite interesting even if I thought the song itself wasn't the greatest showing here in the record. Thankfully "Tie Your Monster Down" is a fantastic tune with a great climax to boot, "Sudden Validation" is another ballad-type song but does it's thing much better compared to track three.

The first instance of a mindblowing track in my opinion was "I was Humming". Not only were the lyrics extremely well written, the music itself follows this fantastic progression that is just absolutely epic and astounding. Quiet Company are great at this type of dramatic composition where it feels earned and not shoehorned in for effect. We have a brief rock song with "Emasculated Man" before we get to one of my favorite songs on the record. "Love is a Shotgun" is a sweet ballad with touching piano playing and lovely and thoughtful musings on love and relationships. The song again follows this grand build-up and when the band comes in it's a supremely gorgeous finish.

Themes of love from this point on are more abundant in the track listing, "So Gracefully" serves as a little acoustic interlude that kind of follows up on the previous song, "Circumstance" is a religiously tinged song about staying true to your goals in a relationship and not listening to detractors. Followed by another interlude, which segues into the final full song on the initial LP. "We Change Lives" is a gorgeous finale, telling the tale of a life of parents who watch as their kids grow up, and as they lead fulfilling lives and eventually are passed on and accepted to heaven. A more perfect ending couldn't be asked for. There are some bonus tracks here which are all fantastic, but don't really add to the overall narrative of the initial record. Still worth checking out.

Overall though, I really enjoy this album. The interludes I can more or less do without, and one or two more ballad-y type songs could have been a bit more engaging, but overall this rendition of the album is beautiful. If you don't mind the religious imagery all that much I feel like one could really gain something from this overlooked record.

"Please Give Me Something, to calm my weary mind"~