Customer Reviews

Innaway

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Innaway doesn't make the kind of music you'd expect to come out of Orange County in 2005. A fusion of classic rock and modern electronica, the O.C. five-piece's music is dark and moody, sporting a singular sound that, like Air's ethereal ambient pop, is familiar but not nostalgic, atmospheric but not alienating or inhuman. Innaway's self-titled debut begins with the Zeppelin-style "Threathawk," a lone harmonica joined by drums, guitar, and backseat vocals that weave in and out of the band's tightly textured song-work. This attention to detail makes Innaway ripe for repeat visits: the album's centerpiece, a suite comprised of the dirgy "Rise" and "Fall," begins with crickets chirping and moves fluidly from an organ melody that sounds like it was lifted from an old ColecoVision videogame to melancholic guitar and a bristling, electrifying coda. A pair of brief, Eno-esque instrumental soundscapes come three-quarters through the album, the first ("Post FM") transposing a wispy Fleetwood Mac-sounding melody onto a plot of break beats, and the second ("Golden") mismatching distorted, spliced-up beats and a mesmerizing '80s AOR keyboard-synth hook. If Innaway's sound is hard to pigeonhole, it's because their myriad influences (from Pink Floyd to Air and even The Flaming Lips) are so starkly contrasted that it makes for something almost entirely new, if not completely original. And, with the sole exception of the final track, the pointedly titled "George Walker On Water," the album skirts being time-stamped-in a way, it could have been recorded at any point in the last 30 years.

Sal Cinquemani
© slant magazine, 2005

I randomly found out about innaway while shopping for t-shirts online. Strangely enough, I moved to southern california a few months later and found out that the band is actually from the city I moved to. They're definitely my favorite band now (seen them 8 times live). Now, on to the album review. It's hard for me to describe what Innaway actually sounds like. The best I've come up with is that they're a fusion between Radiohead, Pink Floyd, and Led Zeppelin. I think comparisons don't really do them justice, though, as they simply have to be heard to be appreciated. The album blends from psychedlic rock to ambient melodies and back to psychedlic rock again. Some of the tracks are here might take a few listenings before they can be enjoyed, but once you can listening straight through is pure liquid awesome.

It is a testament to true genius and perfect beauty when something is not only greater than the sum of its parts, but when its sound can reflect those parts while forging a unique identity of its own.

Innaway seamlessly fuses influences like Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, and Radiohead into an ambient bluesy trip into the depths of space, time, heart, and mind. The music touches the heart, moves the spirit, and excites the mind/body with dulcet tones, insightful lyrics that give weight to the sweeping scores without weighing them down, and a hip-shaking swagger from a rhythm section that could make the levy break...again.

Innaway's music needs to be heard to be felt, and no words can describe what your ears will tell you. If you remember the liberating kick you got when you first heard Led Zeppelin or Pink Floyd and want to experience that feeling with a band that puts new blood into an old vein buy this album, tell your friends to buy it, and help sounds like this that were made from a love of music, a nod to the past, and a lack of convention spread. This goes to 11.

I too stumbled on these guys. I was on the street outside the club Axis in Boston fighting for a single to the Echo & The Bunnymen headliner when I got lucky and scored a ticket. I had to wait nearly half an hour in 35 degree weather, but it paid off. I never would have seen Innaway if I had had a ticket in advance. Since I waited so long and it was cold out I just went right in and happened to catch this band. I don't usually see or pay much attention to the warm up bands, but they impressed me. I bought their CD right after the left the stage. I read the other reviews and it's obvious my instincts were correct. I can tell I'm going to get my $12 worth out of this CD already.

I stumbled on this disc after reading a review from the editor-in-chief for Guitar World, and I gotta' say, Innaway's first release has been one of the more pleasant surprises of this year. I've always appreciated the bands that give a nod to their influences without sounding exactly like them. I can hear the Zepplin. I can hear the Floyd. But what I find most unique and compelling is the '80's vibe simmering throughout, kind of like the mixing of two generations of music. Great album . . . one of the essential albums of my collection.

This is hands down one of my top 5 albums of the year. If you're into classic rock at all this is the album you need to get. Great opener with "Threathawk", which is my favorite track on the album, then they change up with songs like "Tiny Brains" and "George Walker on Water". Overall and stellar debut that you shouldn't miss.

Dude - wtf, This is some mince-meat spicy myoosik....
It like tickles my tounge when im wearin my lounge lizard suit
as a warm up to takin my teenfun babes out for a swing under the crystal ball....Funkalicious....
Smooches
Brentkins...

This is one of the promising bands from Orange County. In days past there used to be a bunch of bad punk rock bands. Even worse there was a bunch of Ska bands. Some of those moved to NYC and would become The Bravery. Others stuck around and started to make really spaced out music. That is where Innaway comes in. They have been making a big splash in the OC. They have fans following them around watching their every move. Bands like Air and Tortoise have inspired them, but they have taken the sound further. They have been filling the rooms in Costa Mesa at the Detroit Bar. They were thinking of re-naming the bar the "Innaway Bar." People all over the world are dying to hear this music. Innaway have played with French Kicks and Pinback and blown those bands off the stage. They are downloading it as we speak. Innaway makes dreamy music that works. I am glad I have a copy already.

I don't listen to a lot of Zepplin, but, aside from the 1st track, that band does not come to mind when I listen to this album. Pink Floyd, yes; Air, yes; Radiohead's Kid A -- most definitely. Like that album, this one maintains a somber mood throughout, adding sustained keyboard chords and echoey guitar to mostly murmured vocals. There are less electronic beats here than on Kid A, but they do appear on a couple of the instrumentals. Overall the album is a bit too sleepy for my tastes, with few strong melodies, and it certainly doesn't add much to what Radiohead already added to Pink Floyd.