EP Review written by Jon Garniss
Everyone In Search of An Exist rips.
It doesn’t rip in the way that some records do, with a particular instrument standing out and shredding. It rips more in the way that Green Day does; guitar, drums, bass, and vocals all coming together to form a whole bigger than its parts. That isn’t to say this is a pop punk effort, rather Familiar Spaces from Barrington, Rhode Island sort of functions here as an emo Voltron.
If you don’t know, let me be the first to tell you. Emo in New England is good right now. Very good, even. I hope as I keep writing for this site that I will get to shine a light on that scene, but for now, let’s discuss what we’re here to discuss. Coming right out of the gate, we have Not Like it Used to Be. We start with a sugary guitar tone strumming the opening chords, building into a massive full band entrance. With sparse verses giving plenty of room for some really fun drum work and a catchy chorus, this song feels like a fall sunset.
Next, we transition to In the Open. This song is pretty catchy, with the last minute of the song feeling particularly grand. The next track Happy Enough is still stuck in my head. Between the delightful guitar tone, haunting melody, and relatable lyrics, this song about whether or not a relationship is worth being in really sticks out to me personally as the strongest on this EP.
You, the fourth song on this release, starts with an atmospheric hum, the cleanest guitar tone on the record so far, and a genuinely heart wrenching vocal performance. Most of this track is just vocals and guitar, and when the rest of the band comes in, it hits that much harder, transitioning to something that much heavier.
The title track and final song, Everyone in Search of an Exit, is definitely the poppiest of the songs on this release. The band inverts their standard formula, having a much larger sound during the verses and a very sparse heavily harmonized chorus. I’m a sucker for nice harmony. By its end, this song is massive.
I mentioned this in passing above, but this release feels like the end of summer. It feels like growing up gone wrong, which is what emo should be. Not life changing, but a soundtrack for what’s already going on.
