Addison – Freeze Out EP

Recording material around life’s constant change is a difficult task. Usually, you want to be able to sit down in a studio and get all of your music together and go in with a consistent feel for what it will all sound like. And mostly, it’s not a good idea to try and record music ‘whenever we can’ or even during periods where all is changing.

Alternative rock band Addison didn’t have much of a choice with band members needing to return home and others dealing with their own personal problems. While they were recording their new EP, Freeze Out, they also had aspirations to make an album – all in the year and a half timetable they set out for themselves. The result is a solid amount of propulsive rock with the usual amount of angular guitars and emotionally charged lyrics; surprisingly enough, it makes for a tasty appetizer to whatever the album will sound like.

The EP is structured around featuring the single and title track in both original and radio edit versions, two new songs and one cover. Rather than bombarding one with material that will mostly never be heard, the San Francisco-based band opted to present songs that best captured their ability and skill. The single, “Freeze Out”, bristles with reverberating guitar and lead singer Joshua Arce’s pointed singing that recalls another lead singer’s emotional singing, The Thermals’ Hutch Harris. Guitars that crunch are met with soaring vocals and it’s obvious why the band has been getting some attention.

The middle three songs each have their own unique touch: the change of pace culmination of “The Method” and charged, quicker pace of “Polaroids” are even changes that place everything into equilibrium. But the best song is easily, the cover, “You’ll Never Walk Alone.” Poignant lyrics that find Arce singing about “at the end of storm, there’s a golden sky” and what at first seemed like an ode to Isaac Hayes’ “Walk On,” is homage to an old English soccer song. The band’s climax is a fervent expression – intense but never losing control, it’s firmly captivating.

Combining everything, this extended play is one that will surely excite some but still, turn off a few. In the end, it’s not the kind of release that will find everyone putting Addison on their “to watch” list but then again, Freeze Out is not that kind of release. It’s a modest EP put out to get some talk and attention and it fully succeeds at that.