Torche – Songs For Singles

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Florida’s favorite thunder pop practitioners have the clout at this point in their career to send the metal world’s head a-spinning with the mere mention of forthcoming new material. Their 2008 full-length Meanderthal garnered almost universal praise and topped many critics year-end lists – and rightly so. It seemed that someone had finally discovered the formula for mixing syrupy sludge metal execution with sugary pop rock hooks. It was like a much heavier yet somehow also airier Queens of the Stone Age, and it rocked. Torche’s approach to songwriting naturally lends itself to shorter songs, and Meanderthal was 36 minutes spread across 13 tracks – a perfect length for what they were trying to do. Unfortunately Torche’s latest recording, Songs For Singles, is an eight-song, 21-minute EP, and while good, it’s got a certain air of “What’s the point?” about it. U.F.O., Lay Low, and Shine On My Old Ways are three of the best songs the band’s ever done, but they clock in at a combined grand total of four-and-a-half minutes. The closing one-two punch of the stellar Face the Wall and the somewhat ambling Out Again sees the band expanding their form and writing longer songs, but an eight track album is simply not enough to be a fulfilling Torche experience. Songs For Singles is certainly worth hearing, but it’s not worth paying the fifteen dollars they’re asking for it. Wait for the inevitable bundle of their EPs and splits to be released in the next couple of years instead.

Written by Brad Sanders
More: 2010, Albums, Quick.Play Reviews, Stoner, Torche