This album starts off with “Velvet Gloves & Spit”, and I think the most obvious element that’s new here, is the inclusion of these very 80’s sounding synths. Like I said in the intro to this review, there are times on this album that actually work really nicely due to the synthesizers. However, on this opener I really don’t get that at all. Timber Timbre used to be so subtle and small sounding, and so stripped down. This is just the opposite of that to be honest. Outside of this instrumentals however, the rest of Timber Timbre’s performance really isn’t that much better. The atmosphere here is so bland, and while it’s certainly big and smokey, this doesn’t come off like a Timber Timbre track at all. Even Taylor Kirk’s vocals don’t even sound on the level of what they were a few years back. And while we’re at it, as far as lyrics go, I wouldn’t say that this is that far off from their more decent material. But let’s be honest, the total package here seriously does not work at all overall. Plus, the pacing on “Velvet Gloves & Spit” is just so slow, what an absolutely boring start. “Grifting” is up next, and at the very least the synths that mark the start of this track at the very least give this one much more of a ghoulish funk feel. Honestly, if Timber Timbre ARE going this route, and are going to be incorporating more and more synths, that’s fine, but this is certainly the way to go. There’s a nice groove to this one, and Taylor Kirk’s very skittish, hoppy performance makes “Grifting” come off sort of like an updated version of an earlier Timber Timbre track. Lyrically though, this really doesn’t do that much for me, I actually think it’s a little repetitive and not nearly as engaging as the subtleness of their early recordings. However, I can appreciate some of the smaller details here, like that one piano note constantly tapping in the back, and personally I think the very BIG synths here are actually really pretty. But this one still rubs me seriously the wrong way. Bizarrely enough, the first track that seriously sticks with me is “Skin Tone”, a fully instrumental track. Now while this is an instrumental, this is easily the pinnacle of atmosphere as far as this album goes. While at first, things sound so sweet and delicate, it becomes very apparent really quickly that this is actually pretty damn twisted. The pacing on this one moves so slow, but when you add that in with that seriously sinister synth line and you get one seriously moody instrumental. Now, I’m not going to say I want to hear a fully instrumental Timber Timbre album because Taylor Kirk’s vocals are most of what made their music so haunting to begin with. However, this is a sign that Timber Timbre seriously need to do a little something different.
Up next, we have “Moment”, and for a few short minutes I feel like Timber Timbre really sound something special in these synths they’ve added to their music. Honestly, I actually like a whole lot about “Moment”, even Taylor Kirk’s performance here is great. But the pacing on these tracks continues to be a serious problem. There’s tons of elements that I actually love here, like that chorus which is just such a wonderful release of energy that’s so huge that it’s stunning. But as far as the verses go, they aren’t exactly boring so to speak, but I’m just dying for a little switch-up at this point. This doesn’t even come off as subtle or as strangely beautiful as some of their early work. No, sadly some of the verses on “Moment” come off as boring. But then, just when I think I’m done with this track, I hear this great semi-sinister synth line pop in as well as these really ghoulish backing vocals. THEN, as soon as I’m done thinking that at the end of the day I ended up liking this track, we have this incredibly necessary solo. “Moment” while overall is really good, is just as all over the place as the rest of the album. Now while I have issues with tracks like “Moment”, one track I don’t have a single issue with is “Sewer Blues”. Let me just start off by saying, if they’re going to continue to use these huge synths and go for a bigger sound, this is the way to go. There’s nothing wrong with these synths and using cleaner production if they actually know what they’re doing, just as long as they start incorporating that famous atmosphere. Which they do! “Sewer Blues” is absolutely hulking, and takes me right back to the old feeling I would get that half of Timber Timbre’s songs would have been great “True Detective” theme songs. Taylor Kirk here sounds so calculated in his delivery, so absolutely sinister deep down, so much so that it brings me right back to the days of “Creep On Creepin’ On” where there was this feeling of true danger and insanity. “Sewer Blues” at the end of the day is a really fantastic track, it they made more material like this I would be more than happy to rave and rant about it some more. Not to mention, the pacing on this one is BRILLIANT, there really isn’t a boring moment on here, and there’s actual tension with each note. “Western Questions” is up next, and from this intro we certainly get the same haunting atmosphere. But I dunno, is it just me, or in situations like this do the synths make everything more cheesy and less tolerable? But that’s all fine and dandy because a few bars later and everything about this instrumental and atmosphere falls apart. And the resulting bars are some of the album’s most exhausting. Not even the “Oh wow this is exciting” exhausted, exhausted in the way that I’m literally mere moments away from falling asleep. The drum machine in the background is the furthest thing from flattering for Timber Timbre. And while lyrically this is actually really decent, Timber Timbre at the end of the day need to take a big step back and look at their formula. But there are still more than a few great little details here. For example, I love how twisted this track is lyrically, and those great moments where the instrumentals go silent and were all alone with Taylor Kirk’s vocals and some creepy sound effects. And don’t even get me started on how fantastic this track’s finale is, when all the instrumentals pick up into this almost dark-tropical feel, I could have seriously ate that up for ages.
I feel like this album isn’t BAD overall, but it’s just so unbelievably inconsistent. Every really good track has questionable moments, while every bad track has some moments that are seriously VERY good. Up next is the album’s title track, “Sincerely, Future Pollution”. Now, lets be honest, once again Timber Timbre here actually does a really good job of bringing in a sense of danger and true darkness. This one is seriously VERY heavy, to the point where more or less this comes off almost like a soundtrack to a climax scene in a really twisted thriller. The synths here are so bold and simple, and the instrumentals that accompany them are all so calculating and piercing. There are a few goofy moments on this track, like those keyboards or whatever those are that pop in. But overall let’s be honest, if this track is cheesy, it’s cheesy in the best way. Not to mention even Taylor Kirk sounds so refreshed and absolutely ghastly once he shows up over halfway through. I think what this album comes down to is just how much Timber Timbre really bit off a little more than they could chew. The synthesizers were a BIG gamble for this album, and while it certainly works great here, there are too many tracks that it doesn’t work with at all. Up next is “Bleu Nuit” which starts off with actually some pretty darn graceful and dare I say gorgeous synth melodies. Things smooth out real quickly here into a surprisingly decent and funky jam that I actually dig quite a bit. There are some jazzy elements here, it sort of comes off like the soundtrack to a super campy 80’s Horror Movie (think “Fright Night” or something around those lines). But you see, once again here Timber Timbre in this case just kinda let things roll out and don’t stray too far from what they know. The saxophone is a great addition to the sound of this track, hell I wouldn’t have minded hearing more of that throughout the album. Also on this track there are some weird backing vocals that are constantly right outside of listening range, which gives this track a legitimate creepiness. This album ends off with “Floating Cathedral”. This one actually has a nice intro with some cool licks here and there. But overall I feel like this isn’t even Timber Timbre anymore. No, on the contrary I feel like I wandered into a Super Mario 64 Water Level. Taylor’s vocals here don’t even sound like his own anymore to be honest. Hell, I don’t even feel like I’m listening to the same band anymore, if this was another band, maybe I could work with this. But I came her for a Timber Timbre album, and this is a poor attempt at that, the direction this band is going in confuses me.
Rating: 7.1/10
Give A Listen To - “Sewer Blues”, “Moment”, “Skin Tone”, “Sincerely, Future Pollution”
Overall Thoughts: This is easily not only the most inconsistent Timber Timbre album I've heard, but one of the most inconsistent albums I've heard all year. The tracks on here are all over the place. Every good track I feel like starts off awkward or has plenty of bizarre moments that make me question if this is the same band anymore. While every track that's really not that good at all, has moments that blow me away. I'm not really sure where Timber Timbre is going to go next, but hat synthesizer man can go a few ways, and I hope they can lock it in before their music gets even harder to sit through.
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