After the release of his debut as
Onelinedrawing
,
Jonah Matranga
toured relentlessly with bombastic groups including
Thursday
Coheed & Cambria
, and
the Weakerthans
-- and on
The Volunteers
, it shows. No longer are the arrangements dominated by hush vocals and spare instrumentation.
is gifted with smashing anthems like
"We Had a Deal"
(which could be
Ryan Adams
-penned). But
Matranga
doesn't completely abandon the original template, and the echoey and sparse bits create a now familiar but still effective loud/soft dynamic that is unstoppable. Even when the songwriting is odd (the start-stop
"Over It"
), it's because
is masterfully constructing a setup to transition into pure
pop
grandiosity.
, in general, may be a bit too saccharine for some listeners, and it lacks the classic
power pop
levity of a
Brendan Benson
or
Weakerthans
, but
is a wildly inventive record that can stand tall beside earnest peers like
Saves the Day
's
In Reverie
. ~ Charles Spano