Album Review :: Marine Electric :: Restrained Joy

Written by: Andrea Janov, CC2K Music Editor

Restrained Joy is Marine Electric’s debut full length, and man, it totally took me by surprise. I cannot tell you why, because I really don’t know what I was expecting, but these guys are something special. Marine Electric is a punk/post-punk style band from New York who is simply exploding. They have managed to capture so much heart in their music and their vocals that the listener feels every song, every chord, every word of this album. Each track is gruff yet melodic and will move you in ways that most music can’t.

This is the style of punk rock that I grew up on; gruff vocals, screaming, hard hitting music full of passion and fury. The power of Restrained Joy lies in the honesty and rawness of the tracks, they harness the power to draw a listener in and connect them to the album on a visceral level.

The first half of this album is damned good, but the second half is fucking great. Track 6, Live Oak completely captures all the elements that I love is music. It is a straight forward punk song, with gritty vocals, solid music, a bit of a hook, an amazing moment of screaming, and a bit of reverb. Ride It Out has a great energy and stripped down cadence, Silver For Lead has a great hook buried beneath the gravely vocals and thrashy music, and Telempathy is the perfect song to end this album, a bit subdued but still full of passion. Above all, these tracks will send any pit into a frenzy.

With the release of Restrained Joy, Marine Electric joins the ranks of Hot Water Music and Avail with punk rock that conveys and creates emotion. And I am so excited to see how they grow throughout the coming years and albums.

Bottom line is that if you love punk rock that loves the art form of punk rock and wants to say something within that art form, you will love Restrained Joy and Marine Electric. This is what punk rock should be. It is available as a split release from Insrgnt and Unbuckled Records. If you don’t beleive me and want to hedge your bets a bit, go listen to it stream on punknews.org, and let it blow you away.