The Early November
The Mother, The Mechanic And The Path
Drive-Thru/Shock

There are a lot of really average emo bands out there and just scraping in at slightly-better-than-your-average are The Early November, whose 2003 album 'This Room's Too Cold' was long-winded and patchy, but showed a lot of promise, especially in songwriter Ace Enders. But, despite that, I remained intensely sceptical (if intrigued) by the concept of their new album - a three disc opus; one rock, one acoustic and one a 'movie soundtrack', complete with a storyline and dialogue.

Opening with 'The Mechanic', the rockier, edgier element of the album, things seem to be going well. It's a fantastic disc; similar in many ways to The Get Up Kids/Jimmy Eat World-styled, instrumentally-driven emo-pop of 'This Room', but with far tighter song-writing and better hooks. Harder tracks, like the fascinatingly layered rumble of The One That You Hated, work the best, but the pop rant of mini-anthem The Rest Of My Life is equally as catchy.

Next up is 'The Mother', which can't strictly be described as acoustic, but certainly is a warmer and quieter offering. Acoustic chords underpin some smooth country-flavoured lead guitar lines, reminiscent of The Get Up Kids' experimental 'On A Wire' or the last couple of Jebediah records. Bouncing from full band numbers to more stripped-back, subtler tracks, it's nowhere near as successful as 'The Mechanic' - songs like the post-modern The Truth Is tip the scales over into self-indulgence - but 'The Mother' contains enough quietly ingenious moments to balance 'The Mechanic' well.

Finally, we have 'The Path'. I only listened to it once and felt pretty embarrassed to have taken part in that single session. Alternately, we get mini-musical numbers and dialogue driven 'sessions', which feature a deep-throated protagonist explaining his childhood troubles to a psychologist - a story that is contrived, clichˇd and boring. I try to forget I ever even heard it, so as to not let it overshadow the two other discs which, together, make for an impressive album.

Hell, just buy it and throw out everything except 'The Mechanic'; then you'll be left with a gem of a rock record and some stylish coasters.

Matt Vesely