Plants and Animals: The End of That Review (Two Takes)
It can be difficult to gain a balanced perspective on an album after reading a single summary of the music. Bias can tilt a review, as can personal taste, history and just about everything else that is unique to the person writing it. So in an effort to offer an expanded perspective in such a medium, here are Two reactions, Two impressions, Two Takes on The End of That by Plants and Animals.
Jeremy Hovda
65/100
The End of That is not as bad as some critics would have you believe, but compared to the brilliance of their first two albums, it’s certainly a disappointment. Contrast this album’s slow, characterless opener “Before” to the explosive anthem “By Bye Bye” that opened their debut Parc Avenue or the restrained-yet-intense cool of “Tom Cruz” that opened their sophomore La La Land, and you have the difference. This album wanders from song to song without ever cohering, and while it has a few strong tracks—“Song for Love” stands out—it doesn’t pack the punch of the previous albums. It feels disjointed, rushed, and directionless.
It gives me no pleasure to tell you any of this because Parc Avenue and La La Land are two of my favorite albums of the last five years. In addition, they seem to be chronically underrated. It’s a shame that more people haven’t caught on to this band. However, I don’t imagine that this album will do anything to help with that. They’ll be playing the 7th Street Entry next week, while much lesser bands headline the Mainroom. And while I’ll certainly be there to see them, here’s hoping they go heavy on the back catalog.
Josh
72/100
When I heard “Lightshow,” the first song released from the new Plants and Animals LP The End of That, I had a brief moment of hope that the band might possibly reach the heights they achieved on their amazing debut LP Parc Avenue. Unfortunately, after digesting the 11 song LP multiple times and enjoying it to a certain extent, the record simply doesn’t hold a candle to their earlier work. The band clearly are talented songwriters, shown by the excellent “Lightshow,” but The End of That seems to continue the trend of distilling their sound to a more easily digestible version. Songs like album opener “Before” lack the creativity that made Parc Avenue so great, while songs like the piano driven track “No Idea” and the twangy (and cheesy) title track could attract a wider audience, but simply feel hollow compared with song like “Bye Bye Bye”and “New Kind of Love.” Where their work took unsuspecting turns and they had long, meandering songs that had room to grow on their debut, there are only two tracks on The End of That that stretch beyond five minutes. I will admit if The End of That was credited to a band I had never heard of, I would have given it a higher score. Is it fair that I am basing my score on how this album compares to their debut record? Maybe not, but when a band makes such a strong initial impression, it is hard to ever really not take that into consideration. The End of That is another very solid record, which feels like a let down when it comes from a band that I desperately want to create another amazing record.
