All the Houses Look the Same

Deas Vail | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (March 6, 2007)
• Original Release Date: 2007
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Brave New World Records
• ASIN: B000MTDRE0
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #77,519 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Standing...

2. Light as Air

3. Surface

4. Rewind

5. Shoreline

6. A Lover's Charm

7. Follow Sound

8. Anything You Say

9. Shadows and City Lights

10. For Miles to Come

11. Life in These Little Boats

12. This Place Is Painted Red

13. ...Still

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An Astonishingly Good Debut, April 2, 2007

By 

Nathan Knapp_Voronwë (Seattle) - See all my reviews

This review is from: All the Houses Look the Same (Audio CD)

Sometime in the last year or two the `emo' genre stopped being cool (I tried telling this to the kids at the local Hot Topic, but no...), and a whole score of bands either simply stopped making music or started calling themselves the new, improved and cool thing to be labeled as: Indie-rock. Right behind them came a new wave of bands (such as Copeland, Lovedrug, etc.) and though still influenced by the emo rockers, filled with a musical prowess that previous bands didn't possess. The Arkansas-bred musicians of Deas Vail fit into the latter group, with their new album All the Houses Look the Same, which boasts a huge sound with a piano-fueled sensibility that captures the imagination as well as the ear.

Frontman Wes Blaylock could very well be one of the best new vocalists in all of rock music, soaring above airy guitars and keys in a way that I thought only Copeland's Aaron Marsh was capable of (especially on the Mew-like "A Lover's Charm"). Backed by crunching guitars on tracks like the aggressive "Surfacing," and a simple yet effective piano-line on "Shoreline" Blaylock's voice soars through the roof and into the upper levels of the atmosphere.

Deas Vail's musical display shines the most when veering on the more melancholy side of the indie scene, especially on tracks like "Follow Sound," a five minute epic reminiscent of Coldplay. The band rarely falls into the trap of generic radio pop on All the Houses Look the Same, but even the tracks that do, such as "Anything You Say," or "Light as Air," only suffer from straying on the side of slightly more light-hearted pop.

However, musical maturity abounds that you don't usually expect on debut albums. Take "Shadows and City Lights," for example, a powerful tour-de-force with a deceiving intro that meanders slowly through moody keys and samples until the chorus, when hard-hitting guitars combine with a glockenspiel combine to create a powerful backgdrop as Blaylock sings of a hopeless relationship.A young band that capitalizes off of their influences with amazing ease, and a sound that is as interesting as it is accessible, Deas Vail seems poised for greatness. The future looks promising, and if their debut album is any indication, we'll be hearing more from this band--a lot more.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars If you like Mae, you'll like this CD, May 25, 2007

By 

Rock Fan (America) - See all my reviews

This review is from: All the Houses Look the Same (Audio CD)

Deas Vail does not have as much of a rock sound as Mae does, but there are striking similarities between the two groups. I find many tracks quite deep sonically as well as lyrically, the soundscapes and textures are only limited by a less-than stellar recording quality.

I despise the use of "emo" to describe any kind of soft rock where the lead singer sounds like he or she is still in high school. It does a great disservice to these bands that have much deeper lyrics beyond emo favorites such as breakups and how unfair life is.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars You don't know what you're missing., August 9, 2010

By 

K-Fizzle "Kyle" (Central NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: All the Houses Look the Same (Audio CD)

You've been listening to pop/alt rock for a while. Maybe too long. You're starting to feel like you've heard it all. All the houses look the same. What does anyone have to do to find that little something special in their music these days? Where's that little bit of honesty? The vocalist who didn't take lessons from the last guy? Where's the real emotion in my music? Who appreciates the silence between phrases? Who cares about the bigger picture these days?

Enter Deas Vail. A chance encounter on Pandora for which I couldn't be more thankful.

You don't need me to tell you what they sound like; you can listen to the samples for that. The best way I can describe the band on this album (and in Birds and Cages, go buy that too) is not by describing their sound but how they use it. It's light when it has to be light and urgent when urgency is necessary. Nothing feels out of place. They perform with such tempo and conviction for an alternative band. You can tell there's something earnest and truthful about their music. It's a subtle thing that really makes itself clear as you progress through the different sounds in the album. And Wes delivers the vocals with such mastery it's just plain unfair to the competition. Their sound just makes me feel as if I've taken a breath of fresh air and they've completely revitalized my enthusiasm for the genre.

The music of Deas Vail will absolutely move you. The more you listen, the more you will come to realize just what your usual fix has been lacking. To that end, I feel like the title of the album is very significant to Deas Vail's debut. I'd say that the other houses do look the same and theirs is quite different and striking... but this band is far too humble to ever admit it.

Now go listen to Birds and Cages too.