Armistice

Album Review

MUTEMATH indulge their experimental side with Armistice, the band's first album since "Typical" climbed up the Billboard charts two years prior. While "Typical" featured Technicolor guitars and arena-ready vocals, the songs on Armistice don't reveal their hooks so easily, cloaking themselves in electronics, strings, and ambient guitars while largely avoiding the poppier elements of the band's previous album. For all their experimental wrapping paper, however, these tracks still deliver what has become MUTEMATH's signature sound: a melodic brand of alternative rock that combines Paul Meany's tenor voice with an epic, nocturnal ambience reminiscent of Radiohead, Muse, and the Music. There's a good deal of dance-rock here, too, and the angular "Goodbye" is a welcome reminder that MUTEMATH's work can target the feet as well as the head. This is essentially a thinking man's album, though, more indicative of the band's breadth than its ability to make hit singles.