Website © 2005 by Tyler Carey
All Content Creator-Owned
Engineers
Self Titled
The Echo Label, 2005
by Dr. Christian Carey Brit-pop group Engineers turns in a strong self-titled first full length. Comparison to arena rockers like Coldplay and Travis are inevitable, and not entirely inapt; but while Engineers certainly is capable of big hooks and catchy choruses ("Home," "New Horizons"), their music also evinces an affecting dream pop cast. Songs like "Waved On" and "Forgiveness" benefit from reverberant atmospherics and hazy vocals, crafting warm clouds of sound which wash over the listener as gentle ministrations. "Said and Done" seems like an ideal IDM "Chillout" track.
No one would accuse the group of making incisive or taut music; many of the more extended tracks, like the album's final two, "How do You Say Goodbye" and "One in Seven," are positively luxuriant. It would be unfair, however, to suggest that Engineers makes "merely mellow" music. Much of the album is intricately crafted and beguilingly attractive - a promising debut.
-July 3, 2005