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We, the Vehicles

by

Maritime

 
We, the Vehicles
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Avg: 4.0 (84 ratings)

Ex-Promise Ringer swaps bloody barbs for glimmering hooks.

  • We Say...

    Review by Trevor Kelley

    Maritime might make unique, winsome pop-rock but singer-guitarist Davey vonBohlen and drummer Dan Didier are probably still more respected for their seven-year stint in the influential emo band the Promise Ring. That all might change with Maritime's second album We, the Vehicles. Here, the guitars shimmer and expand, the bass lines plow along like they marched in from a Phish concert, and vonBohlen's cracked oohs and ahhhs are laced with a sweetness that makes him one of the most likeable singers in indie rock, even though he's far from the most technically proficient. The miniature arena-rock riffs on "Calm" and the Police-like melody of "Don't Say You Don't" suggest that vonBohlen has outrun the emo set, but the real proof comes in the chorus of "Young Alumni," in which he coos a rather un-emo sentiment: "Love is no big deal."

  • They Say...

    Review by Stewart Mason, All Music Guide

    Maritime's second album continues the low-key guitar pop shimmer of their debut, 2004's The Glass Floor. Several steps removed from the earnest emo anguish of their old outfits the Promise Ring (singer/guitarist Davey vonBohlen and drummer Dan Didier) and the Dismemberment Plan (bassist Eric Axelson), We, the Vehicles is a comparatively sunny effort, musically speaking. vonBohlen's guitars favor crisply strummed, melodic lines, fleshed out with occasional keyboards. The rhythm section is similarly clean, preferring a straight-ahead indie rock pulse with occasional detours like the ska-tinged "Parade of Punk Rock T-Shirts." The only hint of the bandmembers' former lives comes in the lyrics, which occasionally show flashes of the caustic wit and tendency towards mopery that was the hallmark of the Promise Ring even at their poppiest. If anything, the album might be slightly too slick, in much the same way that Death Cab for Cutie's Plans smoothed out a few too many of the group's quirks; it's not until "German Engineering," the third-from-last tune on this brief album, that vonBohlen sings in the familiar high-pitched whine (in the best possible sense of the word) that was his vocal trademark in the Promise Ring. Still, the songwriting is strong enough and the arrangements appealing enough that We, the Vehicles has a quiet pop charm all its own.

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