Album Review: Rarity – Lower Feeling

On their third studio album Lower Feeling, the Hamilton, Ontario-based outfit Rarity pairs melodic vocals and hard instrumentals that don’t overstep each other. With balanced tracks, the group can take new musical steps forward. 

The album’s opener “Keep it to Yourself” sounds like a recent Hawthorne Heights song, but that changes when lead vocalist Loeden “Ray” Learn enters the picture. From there, the rest of the instrumental starts to form, the lead guitar riffs mirror his vocals and everything finds its tempo. Lyrically, the song is a message to escape from something holding someone there, left only to be doomed and trapped by the worst. Learn’s clear tone helps make the lyrics understandable and adds a slice of drama to the equation. 

Learn’s vocals are what stand out most about this record. While post-hardcore can be defined by less scream-filled vocals, Learn’s vocals have a tinge more emotion than other artists. In the long run, that will come to his advantage and it’s already flourishing on the record.

This comes off in a few tracks such as “Brain Dance.” In its verses, Learn backs away from those vocals and uses a more sing-talk style that helps portray that crazy dance more easily. Alongside a few screams and a Waterparks-like interjection near the end of the second verse, it’s an entertaining song with a good pace.

Rarity leaves their best track for last with their closer “Ignore Everything.” It toes the line of the perfect post-hardcore track with heavy instrumentals in crashing drums and melodic distorted guitars, but it also hits the realm of emo and pop punk in its emotional content. This mostly comes from Learn’s pleading cries in the last choruses and its begging bridge, “Sing along, sing along / You can find self-control / At the bottom of misery / Take the days and ignore everything.”

Overall, Rarity has created a great next step: throwing them into an upper echelon of post-hardcore groups with real lyrics, a vocalist who can pull them off and good instrumentals to help guide their tracks. While the record may be about lower feelings, the execution will only leave positive ones.