VERTICOLI - The Echo
Released: November 9, 2022
As the Covid-19 pandemic released its initial chokehold on this little island called Tasmania, we began to see more and more of musicians and bands that had been somewhat dormant, yet never forgotten in the minds of fans across the state. One such act, Verticoli, came through with an EP and a few covers (including Alanis Morrisette’s “You Oughta Know” which, as you can imagine, sounds fantastic).
Eventually, this nipaluna/Hobart based trio shook off the dust and set amps to 11 which, following a few single releases, has led to the new Verticoli album, The Echo. I don’t know what it was about isolation, or the looming threat of unsanitised hands, but these hibernating bands have come out swinging hail-Mary from their caves, and nothing said could be more true of Verticoli.
I was straight away greeted with a punk-kissed alt-rock onslaught in the form of the opening track “Undercover,” which plays out seemingly as a love letter to early 2000s Aussie alternative rock bands like Grinspoon. This was a hell of a way to open an album, and was thankfully carried on through other songs like the second single “True Love” and the short-but-sweet “Surrender.” The fifth track, “Sailor,” gives us a softer moment reminiscent of early Silverchair and Radiohead twisted into a melancholic acoustic-driven number.
I do wish that the songs were longer, but I also feel that maybe that’s a good thing. It was this approach of running a ten-track album just over half-an-hour that had me endlessly re-listening to Sydney-based Autosuggest’s 2019 album Tame Harm. I also wish there was a little more resolution. The title track and final song on the album, “The Echo,” is a strong piece of alternative rock, some of the best Tasmania has seen in some time, but it felt like a very sudden end after listening to the rest of the album. That said, the beauty within the stripped-back and emotional outro to the song somewhat makes up for it.
STANDOUT TRACKS: Sailor, Undercover, Alive, The Echo
RATING: 8/10
Written by Ben Barwick from Definitely No Relation November 17, 2022
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