Decibully – Decibully

Stream – ‘Who’s shadow’

In 2009, I got obsessed with Headlights. Sure, they have quite a lot of reasons to become a source of addiction, so when I went into a shopping binge for their stuff, a certain twist of fate had me checking out Decibully. First thing I heard from them was ‘Megan & Magill’. I was hooked and ended up becoming a fan.

Flashforward a few months (and a cool alternate project) and it’s 2001. Lo and behold, Decibully release one last album, called Decibully and it’s their swansong. The sound is their usual palette of musical colours, with the odd surprise here and there (that falsetto in ‘4 ever’ – yeah!). Yes, business at usual, but still, something feels weird.

‘I want’ is one relaxed groove, a welcoming track, feeling like that calm before the storm. “I want to feel it again / Truly I can be someone new / I know it’s true”. I think the lyrics speak a lot here. The sound of Decibully, harvested from a thousand AM stations from the 70s whose radiations are still on the air, it’s here.

But this is not an album for gloomy Gusses. ‘Who’s Shadow’ starts slow, but the band is having fun (whoa, where did that electric guitar came from?) . This care-free attitude of Decibully, the sound of a band actually enjoying themselves, seeps through all tracks and, yes, ‘Who’s Shadow’ is a good example, but the equally rocking ‘Blood we bleed’ (love the bubbly keyboard!) is another corker of a song.

Decibully then presses cruise control. After getting our attention, the band goes for the scenic route. A backwater road with corn fields all the way to the horizon (‘God’s smile’), a drive by a highway by the cliffs near the Pacific ocean (‘Bang bang’) with the radio at full volume, a quick stop in a pine forest to look at its beauty (‘A girl like her’). It’s these types of easy going songs thick with atmosphere what made Decibully one of my fave bands and this little stroll down memory lane (with a few surprises, like previously mentioned) make it thoroughly enjoyable.

‘4 ever’ is such a gem, hidden in the last stretch of the album, possibly to reward your patience, but more probable to pull the rug. Thoroughly enjoyable, with a fuzzy guitar and a great falsetto. Decibully glam! ‘Going alone’ is another funky groove, sporting some very great keyboard work (love the finally – chilling).

All good things come to an end, and ‘Ain’t afraid of nothin’ ‘ continues the groovy path set by ‘Going alone’. The song has this instrumental breaks that are just beautiful. Words really fail me to describe how cool is this song. ‘Been there before’ is the melancholic ending to Decibully (both band and album) and it is the cherry on top. It might not go for a rock surprise in the middle, but it’s punchy and extremely enjoyable. The last minute really brought a lil’ tear, but it’s better to go out with a bang and the band achieved it, bar none.

Thank you, William Seidel, W. Kenneth Siebert, Aaron Vold, Ryan Weber, Andrew Menchal and Nicholas Sanborn, for this wonderful music and all these albums. May all your future projects fill you the way your music has filled us.

You can listen to this album here. Check our interview with Ryan Weber here.

—Sam

Links

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