AARON THACKER
Arts Writer

Hailing from the “royal city,” Guelph, Ont., the band Adverteyes are without a doubt one of my favourite discoveries of 2010, and Myopia — independently released in September — may just be the most overlooked album of the year.

Colin Harrington, the lead songwriter, has a keen ear for rhythmic phrasing, haunting melodic lines and lyrics filled with doubt in society’s current predicament

But Harrington isn’t alone; five other vastly talented musicians who make perfectly balanced contributions to each song join him on Myopia’s sonic adventure.
The accompaniment is stylistically various, yet it never drowns out Harrington’s intelligent and catchy songwriting. The band has spent a lot of time (five solid years) defining a sound that is uniquely their own, which falls somewhere between Origins of Symmetry-era Muse and Kid A-era Radiohead.

The vocals are a standout quality of the album as multiple vocalists are almost always contributing both harmonically and melodically.

The vocals come across sounding like a gang chant done solely by vampires (the 30 Days of Night kind). As a result of the many harmonies, the rare segments in which Harrington croons with anguish have a distinctly creepy quality. Even with such a unique and interesting central vocal, Adverteyes avoid falling victim to stylistic monotony by including segments varying from traditional pop harmonies (“What You Need”) to something close to a scream (“Astronomically Diabolical”).

Myopia takes off with a couple tracks that are built around jangly acoustic strumming and bouncy rhythms and are probably the most accessible tracks on the record. The ironically upbeat tempos of “Help Yourself” and “Ward” are contrasted by dark harmonies and lyrics about overconsumption and idle citizens. This approach is revisited — albeit a touch more sinisterly — at the end of the record with “Aweigh Out,” creating a somewhat cyclical repeated listen.

Adverteyes manages to cram a wide array of influences and styles into a diverse selection of songs while retaining a cohesive, distinctive identity. On one hand, built around a funky Rage Against the Machine-style theme, “Horse of a Different Color” is an exciting rocker that flows into a tension-filled instrumental breakdown at the end. “What You Need,” by contrast, is a dark and brooding number, with disturbing lyrics that inspire images of a bank CEO sneaking into your home while you sleep and whispering “take out a loan” and “fill up your home” into your unconscious ear.

The songs on this album are not brief. At six minutes and 45 second (the shortest song is still over four minutes),“Astronomically Diabolical” evokes the narrative of The Day the Earth Stood Still, with extraterrestrial hippies coming to our planet only to warn us that we’re slowly killing Earth. Suitably accompanied by a stoner rock guitar outro à la Black Mountain, this epic probably rocks harder than any other song on the record. “Homo Stasis” is another long-playing and loud number that would sit nicely at the end of their live set-list.

In Myopia, Adverteyes pack more creative motifs and inspired arrangements into nine songs than most bands can generate in an entire catalogue. Not a single second of the 45-minute playing time of this record is wasted, making for a continuously satisfying listen. But don’t take my word for it. They have the full album streaming for free and available by “name your price” download at their Bandcamp website.