Sincerely, Future Pollution Gets Political, But Fails to Dazzle

Timber Timbre’s sixth album, Sincerely, Future Pollution, shows how the year 2016 affected the band. Masked behind gritty, dark, and drastic song names, not one exact rock subgenre is the focus of Taylor Kirk’s mind. The album opens with “Velvet Gloves Spit,” which harbors a heavy blues influence and ends with dreamy, lo-fi ’50s pop sounds from a song righteously dubbed “Floating Cathedral.” The best thing about this band is that they were featured on Breaking Bad. That said, this whole album is feeling like Kirk and has bandmates tried far too hard to be different.

It seems like all the album’s songs establish a certain musical consistency, as they all have an airy feel to them. However, guitar riffs become confusing and certain songs on the album are far too removed to match the rest. While this doesn’t mean that the artistry itself is poor, it does mean that the album isn’t a great listen from start to finish. If something doesn’t flow, it affects the overall album, as well as the listening experience. This is an album that features periods where it drags and sounds the same. Unfortunately, this is yet another rock release wherein only a couple songs stand out as dance anthems, depending on which type of rock subgenre is the listener’s favorite.

One song that leaves an impression for the effort involved, but doesn’t seem to fit is “Skin Tone.” It is heavy in jazz and ’70s disco, establishing a funky sound. It is a song that can get a crowd dancing and moving. However, the following track, “Moment,” takes on an M. Ward / Bob Dylan feeling, jumping to a ’50s-influenced sound. “Sincerely, Future Pollution” starts off like the latest U2 track, but the song title saves the track. “Western Questions” is a politically charged number that asks questions about society. Kirk croons, “Let the slime come,” while recycling other song titles on the album into his lyrics. It seems like he’s talking about corporations and government, but sometimes the lyrics veer off into things that aren’t pertinent to the meaning of the song.

“Sewer Blues” starts off like it was made in the Wild West and is another song that stands out for that dark, slow, eerie tone. Kirk’s low, rumbly voice suits his simple, frank lyrics, and his delivery is the most refined on this track. “Grifting” is also worth mentioning, but the lyrics in the chorus are annoyingly repetitive. This song takes on the life and influence of ’70s disco, with a funky, dense bass beat that’s sure to encourage head-bobbing. “Grifting,” surely, will make any listener want to dance; however, singing “grifting” over and over for 30 seconds as a chorus is also worthy of a skip. The mixture of disco’s influence could make or break the album for the listener.

All in all, the song names and their integration into the tracks might have been one of the better features of this album. The attempt to be socially conscious on Sincerely, Future Pollution was drowned out by the band’s lackluster transitions and lack of direction.