The Districts – A Flourish and A Spoil
4/5
For many high school bands, the experience of performing at local venues, practicing in someone’s parent’s basement and dreaming of playing professionally is only a short chapter in their life that dwindles away after graduation. Fortunately for The Districts, the dream of a music career is becoming a reality. The group formed back in 2009 while in high school and in 2012 (while still in high school), released their debut album Telephone. Fast forward to 2015, the young band from Lititz, Pennsylvania is releasing their second full-length album A Flourish and A Spoil.
Although their IDs give away their barely-legal-drinking-age age, their sound and song writing skills ignore those minor details, especially with Rob Grote’s bruised and rough lead vocals and the band’s polished garage-rock sound. Opening track 4th and Roebling closely resembles a hybrid of southern rock band The Weeks and the early-career melodic dance-rock of The Strokes. The Districts maintain the high-energy rock hooks with Peaches and “Chlorine”; drawing attention to their ability to build songs that pull the listener along, building up a strong finish each time.
Further down the track list, “Young Blood” takes the melodic aspect of the album and blends it with grungy distortion, and the familiar building of intensity and energy for an extended ending. Almost 9 minutes of hard-hitting indie rock, “Young Blood” is not only the longest track from A Flourish, but also their best performance on the record.
Even without the loud bursts of energy found in the rest of the album, the acoustic ballad “Suburban Smell” vents the band’s aging frustration of a small town, followed by the angsty track “Bold”. The song’s heavy, bass-filled opening combined with the raw vocals of Grote eventually bursts into a sonically explosive finish.
The Districts are just another example of why age is just a number as the band members begin to enter their 20s. They successfully dodged the “sophomore slump” with A Flourish and A Spoil and instead released an indie rock album that is full of powerful guitar hooks, melodic vocal lines and passionate musicality.
Listen to the full album via Exclaim!.
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