The Outline, a four piece band hailing from Los Angeles, describe their music as experimental. Listening to their debut album it seems that what they mean is they’re trying to mix different sounds and styles into modern indie rock songs to come up with something new and interesting. If that was the aim then with You Smash It...  they’ve partially succeeded as the results are definitely interesting.

The album starts with “Aesthetics” which has a big, melodic guitar hook backed by a distorted bass and drum sound reminiscent of Muse or Puressence although the vocals aren’t as strong as either of those bands. It’s a promising start though and the sudden insertion of a Pink Floyd like interlude for a few seconds keeps your attention. This addition of unusual segments or sounds is a feature of the album and does keep it interesting, whether it be the mellow mid-section amongst the pounding beats of single “Sloppy Drunk” or the huge Muse like guitar solo in gentle ballad “N Light Of Recent News”. Their style works best however when they overload on big guitar and keyboard hooks with the lush “Why We’re Better Now” whilst the harder edged songs aren’t musical enough in comparison with the likes of “Shotgun” and “Perfect For The Plan” sound slightly throwaway and written with a festival stage in mind rather than a listening audience. Even those songs though have saving graces with more of those interesting musical sections and I’m left confused as to whether I actually like it or not. Whilst you can certainly applaud their desire to be different and original maybe they’re trying so hard that they let it get in the way of the actual song writing - if it’s a good song already it might be better to leave it alone guys!

The album ends with a real weird tone in “Broadway And Hurst” which is full of spoken sections and jaunty piano and is probably something the hardcore fans of the band love but will mystify much of the rest of the world. It illustrates perfectly both their appeal and their problem - they can definitely become a band with a loyal fan base who love their weird touches but they could write great songs with mass appeal if they want. Which way The Outline go will depend on what their ambitions are,  the next album will definitely be interesting though, that I can say for sure!

Ian Sutherland