Longwave - Life of the Party EP

Genre rock Publisher RCA Records External Links RCA Records

Longwave's EP between their next full-length effort has the band experimenting with five separate song styles. The title track opener, "Life Of The Party" is a lukewarm fuzz rocker backed by pings and pongs and swirling a space keyboard. The song fails to emit any real emotion, hook, or attention grabbing effect. It's a lackluster start for sure and if the rest of the EP were to be this bogged down we would have a problem and a major flop would be predicted for their early 2005 release.

"We're Not Gonna Crack," is a master blaster driving song complete with warring Atari effects. It belongs on Rad Racer 3000, where flying cars race around the track and shoot laser beams at aliens. It's a full force song on crack clocking in at a brief 2:28. But like most video game songs played over and over on the same level, it gets old quick. "Here It Comes," shows hope that Longwave haven't completely sold out their song writing skills in favor of sheer experimentation. It's a good song with an alt-rock orchestration, melody, and solid lyrics.

"There's A Fire," is an acoustic gem. It's the most compelling and memorable song on the EP with apocalyptic verves that will immediately catch the listener's attention: "There's a fire/And all the lines are down/There's a panic in the town/And all the wires are crossed..." Attention all screenwriters, this song should be included in your script. It would fit nicely onto any fire fighter or disaster inferno flick. It begs for a scene as much as Gary Jules’ cover of Tears for Fears’ "Mad World" did in Donnie Darko.

The EP ends with "Sunday Night Health" a beautiful indie-rock instrumental with a space odyssey feel. With the Life of the Party EP, Longwave have slapped five uneven songs onto a disc that could hint at them going in five completely different directions on their next album. Let's hope that the next proper release has more of the "Here It Comes," "There's A Fire," and "Sunday Night Health" and less of the droning title track and the video game blasts.