The artwork, the opener and the production - does that make up for a "classic"?

This -sort of- series may be called "mylestones", though I never intended to talk solely about records, that are true milestones, classics or "masterpieces". The idea is that of getting back to albums that I really liked for whatever. It's even better, when said record flew under the radar. 

NATIVE's second album "Orthodox" ticks both boxes. It somehow is lesser known as their first album "Wrestling Moves" (while being superior in my books), and I truly like it. It's no 10/10 for me, but parts of it definitely are. I always loved that artwork, it may be one of my favourites ever. The setting is awesome, the whole tone and lightning makes it moody as fuck and I just love looking at it, despite it's just a bar stool in a dimly lit shed, with lots of cables hanging from the top and some other stuff laying around. That's the material of genius.

Then, the opener of the record "Word City" still moves me every time. It's a perfect track to bring the vibe of the whole album across without further ado. A quiet intro that lasts for less than 30 seconds takes us in, and from there on, it's Post-Hardcore/Emo-gone-Math-Rock-perfection. The drumming may be the best thing on the whole record, though it would be ridiculous to separate anything or anyone from anything or anyone, cause "Orthodox" is a record as coherent as coherent can get.

I don't know many records that perfected the seemless transitions from track to track as smooth as "Orthodox" does. The boundaries (if you can call them this way on that record) between the songs absolutely blur, and as a result it's basically one long song. A song without any real hooks or strinkingly memorable parts. With their one-way-street-way of writing songs, they remind me a lot of KIDCRASH circa "Jokes". And damn, they sound a lot like KIDCRASH anno 2007. In fact, the "Orthodox"-songs could be "Jokes"-songs cut in half and with more vocals on top of it. Though that's nowhere near a bad thing.

Just like KIDCRASH, nope, even more so, NATIVE seemed to be pretty introvert guys. Thus they get lost in their own music, just like you -as the listener- can get lost in it. As cool as it might sound and as awesome as the production is (another 10/10 thing for sure), it's no music designed to be background noise. You got to stay alert and patient to really enjoy this record. It's a damn jam session of four perfectly attuned musicians and you either go with it or you stay out of it. 

That may be a turn-off to some, but I never called "Orthodox" a record for everyone. But I'd call it overlooked and under-appreciated. So give this a spin if you call yourself an expert in this kind of music! It's worth it.

On another note: The only NATIVE-member that is still active as a musician (or at least on a brighter scope) is their singer/bass player Robert, who is with the pretty popular Shoegaze-act CLOAKROOM. If anyone knows what the other three were up to after NATIVE broke up, then please tell me!