Album Review :
The Gallery - If You Know What I Mean

Artist: The Gallery
Album: If You Know What I Mean
Label: Blue Duck Records
Release Date: August 12, 2008
Review by: Eric Pettersson

Tracklist:
1. Drift
2. Consider This
3. Where We Began
4. Kingdoms
5. The Introduction
6. Surroundings
7. My Rhythm
8. Circus Song
9. The Lonely Disease
10. If You Know What I Mean

I’m a sucker for a pounding beat and a catchy melody. The two are not often found together, hence the wide range musical styles found within my collection. In fact, I’d say it’s pretty much impossible to find a pop band that you can headbang to. But somehow The Gallery pulls it off. Now, it’s not headbanging in the August Burns Red sense of the word, but when the thick bass and solid drums begin thundering together on the verses of “Drift,” I can’t help but move my head front and back like I do when I’m sitting in my living room watching an Underoath music video. And for all this mention of heavy bands, The Gallery really has nothing in common with them. If I had to give a better list of comparisons off the top of my head, it would be This Providence, The Academy Is, and The Early November. And I hate to use such a strong but cliché phrase, but I really do think that this is where music is going. The Gallery successfully take the best elements of the emo/ indie-rock genre and expand upon them, building clever verses and catchy choruses while balancing out their driving energy with their fantastic melodies. You won’t know whether to dance or to close your eyes and sing along.

9/10

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