On 2004's
Love and Distance, frontman Brandon Summers found his voice and pushed it the forefront of his band's swirling sound. The album was a step forward for
the Helio Sequence, but it was still a haphazard move, one that found Summers yelping and shouting in an attempt to deliver a memorable performance. The frontman had an even tougher time on the road, where a string of shows steadily whittled his voice down to a raspy fraction of its original power. Four years later, Summers appears to have regained the use of his pipes, and the band's fourth album,
Keep Your Eyes Ahead, is another sonic jump. Summers no longer yelps, perhaps because his scarred throat simply won't let him, and the group now alternates between massive psych-rock, dreamy pop, and
Dylan-influence folk. For a band that used to channel
My Bloody Valentine's mix of noise and beauty, folksy ballads like "Broken Afternoon" and "Shed Your Love" are a big change, a result of Summers' desire to slow down the band's galloping pace. But the group is still able to build up cloudy walls of sound, adding bubbling electronics and layers of instruments into songs that are lush, towering, and altogether gorgeous. The album's biggest songs -- "Hallelujah," "Can't Say No," and the reverb-drenched title track -- are driven not only by dense guitars, but also a new focus on melody. They're still too loud to be the work of a genuine pop band, but that's certainly where
the Helio Sequence seems to be heading, having trimmed the length of their tunes (nothing here exceeds the 4:30 mark) and emphasized songcraft over pure ambience. If
Love and Distance was the album that pushed
the Helio Sequence off the rails,
Keep Your Eyes Ahead is the sound of the duo getting back on track. ~ Andrew Leahey