Lost From The Start - 'Echo Avenue' EP Review

Tracklist:

1. Commonplace

2. Nostalgic For Disaster

3. Mourning After

There is something to be said about even-numbered years. 2018, for me, reads and feels better than ’17. When you think about it, last year contained a fair deal of heft. It was the year President Trump was sworn in to office, it was the year that North Korea conducted its sixth and largest nuclear weapons test and of course, it was another year in which a whole plethora of natural disasters took place across the globe. Cynics will obviously moan and say something along the lines of ‘Oh, you know, this year will be exactly the same, blah blah blah’. Well, of course they are right in saying that, but come on people, let’s just try and stay a little positive. When surrounded by doom and gloom, I tend to refer back to the good old days of youth. Listening to Punk Rock and watching MTV2 (when it was good). This was a time filled with bands mixing and merging different styles of music and putting their recorded material up on Myspace. A time in which Metal and Punk-Rock began to fuse and morph into something brand new.

Belgian rockers, Lost From The Start, are a band that carry the torch for hybridisation OR those categorised under ‘Post Hardcore’.

Their first song, ‘Commonplace’ dive bombs in like a sugar coated Avenged Sevenfold and lands in Rufio territory. This track is filled with palm muted verses, breakdowns and big choruses. It is, safe to say, the ‘Punkiest’ song on the EP; a straight forward rocker that gives it the full beans throughout.

‘Nostalgic For Disaster’ takes on 2003’s Blink 182. Toying around with breakdowns, mid tempo’s and injecting just the right amount of double speed action for choruses and outros. Front woman Hilde V sings ‘What happened to the lost and lonely’ in the chorus, and, bizarrely, I ‘took’ this as a tribute to all the early Emo kids of the early noughties. Those who grew up with American Pie nescience and then having u-turn to conform towards a post-9/11 world, one filled with deep reflection, the reality of globalisation and deep narratives.

Lastly we have ‘Mourning After’, which borrows heavily from early Weezer and Jimmy Eat World. The slow ‘shuffle plod’ sounds all to familiar to those well adjusted to the obligatory ‘slow song’ within Pop-Punk. I think it is safe to say that it’s not the strongest track on the record, but it still holds enough gravitas to compliment the others. I find it difficult to assess whether this song should be treated as a ‘pick me up’ or as a piece of artistic irony, nevertheless, the track sells the band as contented musicians, happy with their sound and style.

While their ‘product’ maybe sound a little ‘yesteryear’ (to some), I do think it is very nice to hear Pop-Punk sticking to ‘true’ instrumentation and not opting for drum machines, torrented studio workshops and loop pedals. How long the band stick to their guns? Only time will tell.

Overall, a very enjoyable record and incredibly nostalgic (old bastard).