VICTORIA MARTINEZ
Arts Writer

Left of Zero’s new album Blame the Gun is one of those albums whose cover art is perfect for its sound. Pink creeping sketched flowers cut starkly across a black background, with the title perfectly centered and simple.

The music contained on the EP is uniformly beautiful, accessible and lush. Three tracks long, it creates an appropriate introduction piece for new listeners to the Toronto band. 

Two of the songs clock in at a lengthy four and a half minutes which, while not tiring, certainly feels every bit that long. With solid and consistent beats, subtle progressions and repeated motifs, it would be nearly impossible to tell a new song has begun were it not for the fact that each song ends on a repetitive chorus (with varying levels of success).

Lead vocals by Jade Lamarche are melodic and straightforward, with just a touch of the ethereal. The same is true for the rest of the music. Every song starts pushing borders but then shies away, resulting in clean, eminently listenable tracks that fall just short of capturing the imagination. There are glimpses of magic however, with perfectly placed silences, stark endings and jazz doodles.

“Your Father, My Father,” the shortest and most interesting track of the three, spits out the insidious and spooky chorus line “ask yourself” in whispers, male harmonies and Lamarche’s beautiful, this time forceful, voice.

Weaved throughout are little challenges, which pique the imagination. There’s even a cacophonous bridge of drums, bass and guitar. 

The EP format is apparently a conscious decision by the band, in order to put out music as they mature

Unfortunately, the first song “Dorian Gray” is uninspired for the first three minutes, so much so that after a transition in the song, the last minute appears to be a simpler, far more exciting song, using the band’s signature musical tool: a repeated chorus.

The connection to the literary Dorian Gray is tenuous at best. The closest mention of any Gray-style depravity is perhaps a bit of narcissism and there’s certainly no painting social commentary or homosexual undertones. 

The second song fares better, taking advantage of deeper tones in Lamarche’s voice but here the chorus line, actually “oh no,” is ineffective and tedious. Where the guitar takes precedence, it is nicely aggressive but this is far too rare.

The EP format is apparently a conscious decision by the band, in order to put out music as they mature, rather than to conglomerate a musical development on a full-length LP.

They intend to follow up this February disc with a fall release of slightly longer length. After touring for the summer, hopefully the moments of excellence present on this disc will have developed into full songs of awesomeness.

The disc, along with the band’s first outing, the self-titled Left of Zero, were both self-released and are available from CDBaby.com.