Muen Magazine

Intervurt

Union

EMI / FOF

UNION, the new CD from London’s INTERVURT packs a powerful punch musically as well as lyrically (a feat not often accomplished in this day and age).  I know that each song on this CD is a separate story accompanied with its own individual purpose and reason, but in listening to it from start to finish in one sitting, it plays itself more like a movie.  This in NO WAY implies that there’s a constant theme or concept weaving through the 11 well thought out and inventive tracks, but I couldn’t help but notice there appeared to be an overall greater structure at work.   Maybe this was done intentionally, perhaps accidentally.  Regardless, the whole experience is beyond incredible.

The first five tracks are pretty much within the same realm ala The Killers “Hot Fuss” era, back when that band actually were killers and not whatever they traded off to be now.  Intervurt have their own niche and even though these first five songs have a sense of urgency, the band still realize that time is on their side so they slowly and methodically burrow into you.

During the entire duration of this audible journey, Vocalist Paul O’Keeffe sings each song with the sincerity and emotiveness of someone realizing that all is not what it appeared to be; at times you can’t help but feel he’s on the verge of, in his own words, “falling to pieces.”  It’s as if we’re witnessing the progression of him turn from disappointed idealist to venomous cynic.

If the first 5 tracks established the band as a well put together agent of focus and repetition to break through a listener’s often hardened shell as to gain access, the next 5 tracks wreak havoc.  These 5 really demonstrate the band’s ability to expand and stretch out inside the audience member’s head as if that space was their own.  Each song showcases Intervurt’s innate talent at shape shifting and playing with moods and different musical facades not unlike the way The Muse or U2 can so easily change from one identity to the next.  Then band never lose sight of where they’re taking the listener or make a wrong turn.  They know their game and they know it as if it’s part of each member’s own DNA.  It’s really quite extraordinary.

The album ends on the aptly named song, City of Moods. Which has the music come full circle, incorporating the focus and drive of its first half, as well as the vulnerability and courageousness  to swim out into deeper less known waters prevalent in its second half.  UNION is a true tour de force and should be a part of any self admitted music lover’s collection.