In Flight Radio holds sound in on Sound Inside

The Sound Inside, Brooklyn-based In Flight Radio’s second commercial album, represents a large… The Sound Inside, Brooklyn-based In Flight Radio’s second commercial album, represents a large shift for the group. The band’s composition has changed significantly since its 2006 self-titled debut – new faces include a drummer and a guitarist – and it’s evident in the album’s sound.

The Sound Inside In Flight Radio Last Broadcast Rocks like: The North Atlantic, Brett Bixby

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The album is In Flight Radio’s desperate attempt to strike a balance between the band’s new instrumentals and the powerful vocals of lead singer Peria (yes, simply Peria). While they come close on a few tracks, the album as a whole comes off as unbalanced, uninteresting and ultimately forgettable.

The Sound Inside starts off strong with “Red Flags,” a track reminiscent of early alt-rock bands like the Pixies, featuring soft verses and harder choruses.

Here the band’s instrumentals truly complement Peria’s vocal prowess, rising and falling with her and never letting her become overbearing. The next track, “Please,” is somewhat softer but a nice shift from “Red Flags,” allowing Peria to show her vocal range.

The third and fourth songs on the album are perhaps the two best examples of the band’s duality. “Somewhere In Between” is The Sound Inside’s most upbeat track by far, eschewing the soft-hard dichotomy that almost all the other songs feature. In doing so, they create a fun pop-rock track that easily differentiates itself from the rest of the album and shows the band’s ability to create an entertaining, interesting song.

“Yelling Up To The Sky,” on the other hand, is much more like six of the seven tracks that follow it – an atmospheric, down-tempo song where Peria’s vocals shine at the expense of the rest of the music. Peria’s raw, poignant emotion still carries this track.

Unfortunately, this emotion quickly dilutes in the following tracks. As the album continues, the songs become slower and slower, finishing with the ballad-like “I Am Not Awake.”

The band’s increasingly atmospheric nature makes it hard to remain involved, especially considering what a departure it is from the album’s upbeat beginning.

One of the two standouts among the later tracks is “Someday,” which tries to bring back some of the upbeat sounds of “Red Flags”‘ and “Somewhere In Between” and is a welcome reprieve from the slower songs.

While the closer, “I Am Not Awake,” is the ultimate manifestation of one of the album’s weaknesses, the song itself is impressive and surprisingly catchy, just different enough to be readily distinguishable from the rest of the album.

While perhaps not the ideal song to end an alt-rock album with, had more songs been as experimental as “I Am Not Awake,” the album may have been easier to swallow as a whole.

The Sound Inside’s major flaw, then, is that the album – especially the second half -fades into the background far too easily. It is odd to consider that the band added an extra guitarist only to suppress him by emphasizing vocals. In Flight Radio, it seems, is a band still struggling to find its own musical equilibrium.

The album also hints at a bit of excessive narcissism on Peria’s part, evidencing a struggle between the band’s desire to be a cohesive unit and Peria’s desire to distinguish herself as a singer-songwriter, which also fits in with the change in the band’s composition between albums.

It’s a shame, because Peria is a powerful rock vocalist with an immense untapped potential. Here’s hoping the band finds that crucial cohesiveness on this album’s tour and produces a stronger effort the next time around.