The Potomac Accord - In One-Hundred Years the Prize Will be Forgotten
(First Flight)
The Potomac Accord is the only band in the history of fakejazz.com to have the rating of their record changed after publication. The band's first album was given a rating of 4 and a scathing review claiming that everything from the sound to the cover art was an overt and half-assed ripoff of Godspeed You Black Emperor by a bunch of emo kids. Shortly after the review was put online, someone representing the band wrote in and said that the likeness of their cover art to Godspeed's first album was completely unintentional. Instead, they said, they were much more influenced by Slint. Since we figured ripping off Slint was a bit less offensive than ripping off Godspeed You Black Emperor (circa 2001), we changed the rating and gave it a bonus point.
Given our dismissal of the band's first album, I wasn't too excited by the arrival of their new album, In One-Hundred Years the Prize Will be Forgotten. The band manages to move a bit away from their highly derivative beginnings and create a couple good songs on a six song album. However, they still very much sound like a bunch of emo kids trying to sound like Godspeed You Black Emperor and, as a whole, the album is bland. The first indication is, of course, the packaging, as instead of the one style of "indie rock" cover art that looks so much like Slint, they give us a cardboard stock digipak with a pattern that looks like one of the Windows preset computer wallpapers. The music on their second album shows more thought than that, at least, as the band embraces their obvious emo roots more and ends up sounding a little more pop. However, that means at their best they sound like And Farewell to Hightide-era Cerberus Shoal. And that's exactly what their best song, album-opener "A Quiet White Cut by the Longest Blue Shadows," sounds like.
However, the album is still marred by the band's true influences. The singing and lyrics are pure emo garbage. "Like a car salesman in winter" and "Everyone is scared at the possibility you will go to hell" are hilarious one-liners from some emo parody band, but NO!, they are actual lines from this actual band. Andrew Benn's voice is several times slightly off-key, and while a lot of singers can get away with a lazy style such as this one, Benn seldom seems impassioned even when he is singing against music that is supposed to be full of passion. It just seems that, musically, the parts don't always mesh. Aside from the singing, the bass player uses a very lively style, reminscent of New Order, or rather some of the emo bands who were influenced by Joy Division and New Order. and this lively style doesn't match well with slowly developing piano progressions. In a rock setting, this bass playing may even be a benefit as it is very lucid, but cast beside a piano dirge, it just feels off.
The band's song structures don't add anything to the recent history of epic rock songs. There's lots of builds. Some sound like Rollerball's cabaret choruses (only with mediocre singing). Some sound like Mogwai rock-outs (only with mediocre singing). The band at least seems earnest though. They're trying to make good music, even if what they produce sounds too much like what I've heard too many times before. Perhaps if they had more heart, they'd even be recommendable.
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