The Globe, the highly anticipated second album from Detroit faves the Silent Years, can be summed up in this one lyric: "Microscopes and telescopes both end up showing the same thing ..." The band tackles the universe and the universal on their second release — and in "concept album" form no less. Lofty? Yes. Risky? Certainly. Successfully executed? Resoundingly. The Silent Years not only rise to the occasion, they soar beyond the point where any reasonable band would be satisfied.
The kind of vulnerable, liberating, swirling rock the Silent Years pull off balances a fine line. Once your heart is out there, the emotional tightrope is a thin one. A misstep in one direction and you fall into a pit of Dashboard Confessional-style emo-whining; stumble in the other direction and you land on a crumbling mountaintop, striking a Jesus Christ pose a la Scott Stapp. But Josh Epstein and friends manage to maintain a level of humility and humor that allows them to bore even deeper into your psyche. And everybody can relate on some level to the themes presented on The Globe, including alienation, searching for purpose, accepting the inevitable, feeling alone or misunderstood, and some good old-fashioned existentialism.
With such widespread themes, the messenger and delivery are what most matter. And the Silent Years deliver poignant slices of humanity, like, "Everybody's feeling disconnected, cause the fabric's a little bit unraveled," with hooks and urgency — the type of urgency that conveys sincerity. Like a musical butterfly effect, each song on The Globe fits harmoniously with the others, while smaller, less immediately obvious flutters are what ultimately cause the eventual hurricane in your heart.
The Silent Years play a CD release party on Saturday, Sept. 6, at the Magic Bag, 22920 Woodward Ave., Ferndale; 248-544-3030. With Deastro, Manna & Quail and These United States.
