Standstill's "Memories Collector" turns 20

Back in 2002 a band named AT THE DRIVE-IN still rocked my world, after discovering them two years prior. I always was on the lookout for possible alternatives, when they disbanded in 2001. I then discovered an album named "Memories Collector", by the spanish band STANDSTILL. After some time with it, I bookmarked it in my mind as the european version of "Relationship of Command".

One thing this album has in common with AT THE DRIVE IN's magnum opus is the emotional rollercoaster you'd been sent to, from aggressive to calm, from fast to slow, from loud to quiet, from catchy to progressive, from to-the-point to epic, STANDSTILL cover a lot of ground in these 40 minutes. They start us off with "Ride down the Slope", a track that fits the song title, and might just be their most straight forward, most furious song ever written. "Always late" turns things around and shows the Post-Rock-ish face of the spanish band. "Dead Man Picture" then is the total opposite of the opener! It's forgiving, harmonic, soothing, and something you'd have not expected after "Ride down the Slope". Here you really make out the differences to AT THE DRIVE-IN, as STANDSTILL always were more about the melodies and the atmosphere, close to some Post-Rock-acts of the early to mid-2000s. Also their singer was most of the time just that... a singer. 

I probably could go on with my description of each and every song and nothing would change the whole impression of this album, as it's just winner after winner. You name it, be it the dramatic "Two Poems", the either parts psychedelic and raging "Skies and a Mouse", the wonderfully built "Not the Place", the complex near-instrumental "Mathusalem Syndrome" or the hypnotic title track. At the time, when everyone was in search of the "new" AT THE DRIVE-IN, STANDSTILL possibly were the band coming closest. Then again, it would be undeserving labeling them as an AT THE DRIVE-IN rip-off, cause they definitely had their own style.

"Memories Collector" is one of the best Post-Hardcore-albums of the 2000s and might just be on top when it comes to Europe, even twenty years later. 

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