Pitchfork

Let me play devil's advocate for a minute vis-à-vis emo and post-rock. People who hate emo often do so for reasons that have little to do with the music-- they hate its cliquey cachet, its asymmetrical haircuts, its Hot Topic couture and predictable tattoos. An aversion to the music itself-- the stock dynamic changes, monochromatic vocals, oblivious self-obsession, and an obviousness that borders on emotional manipulation-- is almost an afterthought. Where emo is stylish, post-rock cultivates an anti-style, and people who are into vibrancy might find themselves turned off by its drab trappings and grave seriousness, not to mention the stuffy pretensions that can mar the music. To take the negative view, post-rock is cold, sterile, overly cerebral, and gives itself too much credit for rote gestures masquerading as innovations.

Appleseed Cast's latest picks up more or less where Two Conversations left off-- if there's any difference, Peregrine is even more stately and impressionistic than its predecessor. I want to call this album "post-emo," as it blends the better traits of each genre-- emo's warmth but not its grating bombast; post-rock's ambition but not its obscurity-- allowing them to temper one another. Whether the record scans as unusually adventurous emo or as unusually melodic post-rock is up to you, but I find this happy medium to be much more palatable than the lion's share of what each genre produces by its own lights. Despite its atmospheric trappings and intricate arrangements, Peregrine never loses sight of its grand melodies, which unfold with patience and restraint.

The ice-blue arpeggios of "Ceremony" ring out bell-clear; offset by shuddering washes of noise in the background, they begin to wrap around themselves and are soon shattered by pounding drums. The shards coalesce like rewinding film several times before they blow apart into a final, triumphant cacophony. On "Woodland Hunter (Part I)", warm guitar chords and a muffled vocal melody levitate in the middle distance, then leap to the foreground for an outsized verse. The glitchy, staticky drums hop adroitly between channels; sonorous feedback stutters and blinks like reflected light, and one wants to make a crack about the emo Dntel, if the Postal Service didn't render it redundant. "Here We Are (Family in the Hallways)" strongly evokes Death Cab's "Title and Registration", from its tripping guitar line to its dreamy vocal melody to its floating, syncopated percussion. It still might be a little too gooey for post-rock diehards, but with Peregrine, Appleseed Cast just might have made an emo record for people who hate emo.

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