Low Standards, High Fives hail from Turin, Italy. On their bandcamp page, they describe themselves simply as: “We are a 5 piece band from Turin (Italy). 3 guitars, bass, drums. 3 voices.” I appreciate the humble simplicity of that statement; no reliance upon, or claims to be part of spurious labels or buzzwords. This LP, Everything Ends, is their second full length, following 2018’s Are We Doing the Best We Can?, which saw a CD only release via Engineer Records.
Low Standards, High Fives are a new band to me, asides from having seen their name a couple of times. Armed with almost zero prior knowledge on going into this review, if I’d only seen the name of the band, I feel like I’d have expected them to be one of those terrible bands like Four Years Strong that try and pass themselves off as “pop punk with blast beats” or whatever seems to be the fad du jour. Thankfully, this is not the case. On taking the LP out of the mailer, there’s no logo or album title on the front sleeve; just a bleak, desaturated photograph of a living space covered in plastic sheeting, curtains closed. I really like the scenario this seems to evoke: A place nobody lives anymore, all their stuff (including a vase full of flowers) is covered in this plastic sheeting. Almost like the preservation of a memory or some such.
The vocals throughout the LP are largely clean with the odd break of impassioned roaring. Think, for example, in terms of Red Animal War and Benton Falls. From a musical perspective, this seems very influenced by the Mid-West emo sound, that STILL seems to provide fodder for arguments on the internet as to whether it should be classed as emo, post hardcore or indie rock. The mind boggles that people lead empty enough existences to be bothered about such things. Realistically, it’s a combination of not entirely unrelated styles, and I find stuff to like in ’em all. And probably your favourite bands have dipped their toes into the bloody lot anyway, with a fairly high frequency.
Obvious comparisons can be drawn here to the likes of Braid, Sunny Day Real Estate and The Promise Ring; bands that encapsulate in one way or another the definitive sound associated with Mid-West emo. Of course we see pointers to other bands that have become much loved over the years such as The Get Up Kids and Jimmy Eat World for example, who are currently enjoying their period of “big anniversary” tours celebrating their most popular albums. And boy oh boy, doesn’t make you feel old, mate? Anyways, although many have tried to imitate it over the years, it’s a difficult sound to get right, particulary when you throw in audio references to your less well known acts over the years. I’m going to cite Brandtson, Hop Along, Rainer Maria and Joie de Vivre, here as a few examples.
Whilst Low Standards, High Fives might not be rewriting the playbook with Everything Ends, I’ve been finding it a thoroughly enjoyable listen. Perhaps you remember those heady turn of the century days of people with thick-rimmed glasses, tank tops, slightly bad haircuts and Eastpak backpacks with fondness? I’d recommend having a blast of this if so. Perhaps you aren’t old enough to remember any of that shit the first time around? Maybe there’s a touch of bands as disparate as The Hotelier and Nothing here that you might properly buzz off?
Tony of Nurgle rating: 8/10
You can pick this up on classic black vinyl from the Low Standards, High Fives bandcamp page or the Enginner Records webstore
