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Pretty Embers’ ten track debut Under has a decided advantage over other first releases. Many emerging acts put out their first collection after playing a short time with one another. Pretty Embers members Kameron Mitchell, Ethan Standard, and Mason Thomas, however, enjoy a personal and musical relationship dating back to their time in high school. They share a long-standing artistic connection that gives them a veteran unit’s sound on Pretty Embers’ first collection.
“For You” opens the release on an appropriately atmospheric note. Featuring the guest talents of Brett Bellomy, the song’s arrangement has strong dramatic qualities from the outset, and effects are used in such a way they enhance the track’s presence. This is especially true for the vocals. They have a light smoked and hushed tone ideal for the band’s deliberate and even orchestrated compositions.
Pretty Embers move into quasi-ballad territory with the album’s second track “I Don’t Need You”. The cut spotlights another guest musician, Soren Bryce, and it’s part of the overall collaborative nature the band embraces. These songs are not vehicles for a single performer but, instead, living and breathing musical works made fuller by others’ contributions. The nuances of the band’s arranging talents stand out once again. Pretty Embers scatters several outstanding guitar fills throughout the song and the vocals are emotive without ever being histrionic.
“Inside” has cascading and interlocking melodies of guitar falling on listeners from the beginning. It starts off with six string alone before the other musicians enter. It’s a fascinating mood piece, in some respects, weaving a dream-like spell over listeners. Much of its hypnotic effect comes from its repetition, though subtle shifts occur, particularly in the track’s second half.
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The track defies easy categorization. It fits the overall sonic mold of the band’s other tracks but has the feeling of a song that wasn’t written so much as it coalesced into being. The second half of the track does harbor some subtle shifts, as mentioned earlier, but Pretty Embers dials up the guitar presence as well. It helps bring the song to an emphatic close.
They jettison the electric instruments, for the most part, during the song “Losing Sleep”. Its mood of melancholy anxiety is a nice touch and the acoustic instruments heighten the song’s emotional tenor. It’s another track included on this debut illustrating Thomas, Mitchell, and Standard’s comfort on the stairway of surprise. The long-standing artistic connection mentioned earlier in the review gives them versatility other bands only dream of at a similar point.
Pretty Embers should relish this auspicious beginning. Many have heard it said that a band has their whole lives to prepare for their debut album and the window grows considerably smaller after that. The ten songs on Under do sound like they are or near the sum total of the band’s musical experience until now, but they make such an impression that it isn’t difficult to believe their future work will match or outstrip their first release.
Jennifer Munoz
