Release Date: Aug 30, 2024
Genre(s): Pop/Rock, Alternative/Indie Rock, Indie Rock, Grunge Revival
Record label: Run for Cover Records
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Home In Another Life is the second full-length album from Tacoma, Washington's Enumclaw. Do a little digging and you'll find the band's namesake: the City of Enumclaw, WA - a moniker synonymous with skill and ferocity (in Native American mythology), and a word that translates as "he who makes noise" or "thundering noise". Spend the half an hour or so it takes to listen to the album and that name makes perfect sense.
When Enumclaw's debut LP, Save the Baby, first burst into the scene, it signaled a young Washington band embracing their hometown state's music history with their '90s-indebted sound. And while noisier aspects of their sound point to a heavier sonic imprint, it's always been lead singer-songwriter/guitarist Aramis Johnson's goal, who once cited Oasis and Drake as influences, to write hook-driven anthems. And, to a large degree, his raw, heart-on-sleeve sentiments are easy to connect or empathize with.
Enumclaw, the Pacific Northwest band from Tacoma, Washington (not far from the city that inspired the name), delivered a recognizable sound on their debut album, Save the Baby (2022). They offered their fresh take on 1990s alternative rock, including the surprisingly tender “Jimmy Neutron”. On Home in Another Life, recorded in just four days, primary songwriter Aramis Johnson wears his heart on his sleeve and shares more courageously than in previous work.
Glance down the tracklisting for Enumclaw's second record 'Home In Another Life', and it seems to paint a rather remorseful picture. Yet while some titles might offer up specifically vivid images of regret - 'I Still Feel Bad About Masturbation' says it all - there's so much more here than first meets the eye. Much like on the Washington quartet's debut, 2022's 'Save The Baby', the album grapples with the full and often rough-around-the-edges spectrum of human emotion, as told via the compelling and, at times, wry songwriting of Aramis Johnson ("Change makes nothing the same / A stain on my pants can ruin my day," he sings in a bizarre but brilliant one-two on 'Haven't Seen The Family In A While, I'm Sorry').
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