Thursday, March 21, 2013

MUSIC! R.E.V.O. by Walk Off the Earth


My favorite band dropped their first full length, major label album this week, and it's as good as the EP they released last fall promised it would be.

Realize Every Victory Outright! That's what the title of Walk off the Earth's new album means. Anthemic, exciting, joyfull, and all around absorbing, the WOTE crew have gone beyond doing awesome arrangements of other people's songs (often owning and surpassing the original versions), and even their own previously released original material, to create some truly memorable music.

I've been a fan for a few years. They've always been fun and innovative in all their releases (everyone in the group seems to be a multi-instrumentalist), and vocalists Ryan Marshall, Gianni Luminati and Sarah Blackwood harmonize beautifully, while switching off lead vocals with a natural air as if they had been doing it all their lives. Joel Cassady and Mike "Beard Guy" Taylor round out the band's lineup, adding their  vocals to the mix and providing the foundation that lets the three lead singer do their thing.

Taylor, Marshall, Gianni, Sarah, and Joel
My favorite songs from the LP are the title track "REVO", "Speeches" and "Red Hands". The latter, their first single, I've embedded below for your enjoyment (and mine).

They did include one song they didn't write, the cover they did of Gotye's "Somebody That I Used to Know" which grabbed something like ten million views in a matter of days after they released their five peeps, one guitar version of it in early 2012. That song, and their unique way of playing it, brought them to the attention of the world. That attention is well deserved in my opinion, and that song definitely has a place on this album (regardless of how sick of it you may be at this point).

Right now WOTE is on tour in Europe, with stop overs in Toronto, New York (I'm going!), and Vancouver Island before wrapping it up for a while. They make fabulous music, they make cool videos, they even make babies. So, check them out and fall in love with their infectious music and personalities.

Like many of their videos, they did this in one take. Don't believe me? Check out this unedited version of the video.

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