Jobie Reviews Music 99: You Smash It, We'll Build Around It (album) by The Outline

You Smash It, We’ll Build Around It is a 2006 alternative rock/indie rock album by the band The Outline. It contains 12 tracks, spanning 39 minutes of music. The album has a unique sound to it that I’ve never really heard anywhere up to this point. I actually found this one via Spotify’s “More like” feature, so I figured that I might review this one. I’ve never heard of this band up until this point, but they seem to have a decent following, with 15,000 monthly listeners on Spotify.

That being said, the album makes use of an interesting alternative sound which makes for a pretty intriguing listen. The very first track in the album, “Aesthetics”, for example, could almost be mistaken for an ambient track, were it not for the vocals that come in a few minutes into the song. The track “Interlude” in particular differs heavily from the rest of the album’s alt sound, being more focused on vocals than the alternative guitar sound the rest of the album follows.

The vocals are delivered behind a layer of alt melodies which basically match the volume of the lead vocalist, making this album have sort of a “kick”, to its sound. It’s certainly not on the same level as, say, songs with a higher tempo and more instruments in general, but the energy is certainly there.

The track “In Light of Recent News” also differs from the rest of the albums, being a lot more mellow and solemn than the other tracks. It features soft vocals with a matching soft guitar sound, which isn’t present on the other tracks on the album.

I would also like to comment on the very last track on the album, “Broadway and Hurst”, which is a broadway-esque song that follows “Nicholas Foster” as he learns that his girlfriend has cheated on him with some random dude. It’s quite an interesting closing track, being stylistically opposite of everything else on the album. It certainly reflects its name, with some parts of the song being sung and others being spoken.

The fact that the album has a few diversions from its regular song doesn’t take away from the quality album. In fact, I’d argue that it actually adds to it, as it shows that the band can branch out to a wider variety of song styles if they wanted. This is also why the instrumentation that some songs have is so unique - one track even having what I can only describe as a synth-type instrument in its instrumentation.

My favorite tracks from this album are “Aesthetics”, “Shotgun”, and “In Light of Recent News”.

Overall, You Smash It, We’ll Build Around It is an interesting listen that has an alternative rock sound which is very intriguing to listen to. Its variations in its own style also add to its appeal, with diversions like “Broadway and Hurst” seeing The Outline branch off into different styles entirely. A nice album all around.

Overall rating:

8/10

LINK TO ALBUM:

https://open.spotify.com/album/0GA1aEVqabujWFWjjKvxGM?si=fk3l0esDQVyLbIARJ4R47w