Review: 84 Tigers - Time in the Lighthouse

Label: Spartan Records

My mother is a lover of sayings and phrases. And she loves repetition. Some of those phrases will stuck with me for a lifetime, be it in a more negative or a more positive connotation. Some of them were bullshit from the beginning, others grew in importance over the past 37 years. One of those phrases she liked was "Nothing better's coming...". It's a simple, pessimistic phrase that probably is right more often than not. Then again, it's a 50/50 split anyway, or isn't it? Something new is either better or worse. But can you classify it? It's different, yeah, that's for sure. But can you generally say that something new is better or worse than the thing before?

Staying in the same musical sphere where 84 TIGERS seem to have flourished, I probably gotta go with my mum's saying. A lot of my favourite 90s Emo/Post-Hardcore-bands' new projects left me feeling cold. Projects by members from legendary bands like MINERAL, SUNNY DAY REAL ESTATE, JAWBREAKER, TEXAS IS THE REASON, KNAPSACK, and... SMALL BROWN BIKE. The band out of Michigan was constantly overlooked during their run, despite putting out three good to great albums in a row. Even their comeback-record from 2011 is worth listening to. The new band by the Reed-brothers, called ABLE BAKER FOX, wasn't able to catch me. It wasn't utter dogshit, but I couldn't get into their stuff. It was a short run anyway, with a small comeback a few years ago...

Now the Reeds are back with their new band 84 TIGERS, adding the former drummer of the Pop-Punk-outift THE SWELLERS. The trio got me from the moment I've discovered them. They don't exactly leave their comfort zone with this one. If you'd be scratching on the surface you would throw them in a pot with SMALL BROWN BIKE & ABLE BAKER FOX in no time. All the small nuances make a lot of difference, whatsoever. While they're not as rough around the edges as SMALL BROWN BIKE (big surprise in 2022!!!), they definitely rock out more than ABLE BAKER FOX did. It's driving stuff anyway, with the right middle ground between hooks/melodies on one site and just enough edges/punch on the other site. They sound like a modern Rock-version of what SMALL BROWN BIKE used to be and I totally dig that. The songwriting is on point, the production is pretty good and the songs are catchy throughout. 

The downsite of it all is that they're not reinventing their own wheel with "Time in the Lighthouse", and for sure not the wheel of Melodic-Punk, Pop-Punk, Emo-Rock, Post-Hardcore, or however you'd like to call their style. It's probably up to you, how much that will infect your listening experience. "Time in the Lighthouse" is no record that will stick with me forever or has any potential to become  a classic, but it's a good record and I like it. Up to this point, I truly think that it's under-appreciated and overlooked. So, nothing better's coming, eh?! I'd say the 84 TIGERS-debut is one of the better "old heroes doing grown up, boring stuff"-records I've heard in some time.

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