Here, Hear. II Review

 It's the respect and maturity in the way that La Dispute crafted their Here, Hear., series that makes it so powerful. It's unfortunately rare in recent music to find a band that not only makes their music professionally, but does it with such craftsmanship. As shown with their previous entry in the series, La Dispute takes bits and pieces from the workings of authors and poets and supply all the other necessary elements to make the four tracks on part II. And it's with this approach that the group shines exceptionally as musicians, each member adding their own music for each of their literary selections and lead man Jordan Dreyer submitting his vocals. As displayed on their previous releases, La Dispute holds the pristine ability to create atmosphere and it is no different here, beginning with the light chirping of crickets on five.


Dreyer's confident and concise pronunciation is key to the way each song flows. His smooth, gliding, sing-song technique with the finger-snapping tempo on five and the playful, even childish tone during seven shows him experimenting with a number of ways to convey the message of each track. Everything is executed in a very precise manner, bringing out the hidden talents not shown on La Dispute's previous outings (save for the previous Here, Hear.) as well as showing just how respectful they are to their source material. This is no simple spoken-word tribute to the authors and poets; it's a downright gift to them. As shown on eight, the extremely tense and explosive feel of Dreyer's words holds the perfect intensity and passion not normally seen by the pseudo-poets loitering the corner coffee shop.

As previously mentioned, the music here is put in place only to accentuate the mood of the literature, and it does its job wonderfully. With the diverse instruments rising and falling with the mood of the speaker, it shows a lot about the group's ability to appreciate and control their tempo. For each song that La Dispute craft, a little more potential is revealed and their gradual growth is one of the most exciting developments in music today. From their usual post-hardcore fashion to this rare spoken-word treat, they slowly evolve into professional and ever-expanding musicians, and never cease to surprise the music world. And with Here, Hear II, they add another stepping stone to their next project, which promises only greatness.