Shop our Big Takeover store for back issues, t-shirts & CDs
Follow The Big Takeover
With a name like Tension Envelopes, I expected tension enveloping me and twisting me into a jaw-clenched rage. Instead I got bland hipster indie rock that’s as forgettable as the junk mail I just threw away.
The A-side, “High,” is an upbeat little ditty with trite feel-good lyrics that make me want to sway my shoulders back and forth “We Are the World”-style to a Bruce Springsteen beat. (Funny, the band’s from Morris Town, NJ.)
“The Royal Champions,” which comprises the B-side, is much better – musically at least. The lyrics are still nauseatingly trite (“Try and forget the bad stuff, some folks can be so mean”), but there’s more going on with the guitar and the dual male/female vocals.
Considering that the members are listed as Pete Heilman and D. Heilman however, the songs can take on a more personal tone. If they’re a married couple – not siblings – these would be excellent songs to sing to their first-born child at bedtime. Realistically though, we don’t need such saccharine in the big, bad world, so please keep the nursery rhymes at home.
Or maybe I just don’t “get it.” That’s fine. I rather enjoy my malt liquor, punk rock and black metal.
