“There’s nothing here but bloodshed and doom”

This lyric from the chorus of opening track Keep it to Yourself paints a dark, cynical picture which is a bit ironic because listening to this album is an absolute blast.  Nearly five years since their most recent full-length, the Hamilton, Ontario band is back with Lower Feeling – an album deserving of making Rarity one of the giants of the post-hardcore genre.  The crushing guitars in the opener bring to mind Boston Manor’s 2018 album, Welcome to the Neighbourhood, and the song is utterly massive.  

There are not many wasted moments on this ten-track album that clocks in at just over 32 minutes.  With no time to recover from the opener, the opening riff to OKAY immediately kicks in and it is a wild ride.  Musically, the chorus has a familiar sound that would not have been out of place in ‘90s or ‘00s alternative songs.  There is a breakdown (“The clock has stopped/You’re out of time/Say goodbye!”) with about a minute left in the song  and it is at this time that a lot of listeners are going to look up Rarity tour dates.  This is a song that demands to be experienced live.

With an incredible 1-2 punch, Brain Dance had a lot to live up to.  Vocalist Loeden Learn’s delivery is a bit different here in the verses compared to the opening tracks, but it works well.   The screamed bridge of this song is one of many highlights on this album.  “Block out the lights/Drive through the night/Hope for an ending/Swerve left and right/Blurring the lines/I can’t see anyone” – this goes so hard and sounds incredible the entire time.  The production on this album in general is top-notch and it is without hyperbole one of the best sounding albums of the year to date.

After the opening trio of high energy songs, who gives a fuck? is a welcome change of pace.  While the stylistic change makes sense as far as track sequencing goes, the song falls a bit flat, and the chorus is a bit too repetitive.   The music swells about two-thirds of the way through the track and ends on a high note, but overall, this is one of the few missteps on Lower Feeling.

Any fan of ‘90s or ‘00s alternative music will eat up the following track, Kiss!  At barely over two and a half minutes in length, this may be the catchiest song on the album which is high praise given the strength of the first three tracks.  This song deserves to be huge and will be a great song to jam in the summer while driving around with the windows down.

It would be interesting to hear what the members of Rarity have been listening to over the past few years, because there are some songs on this album that have nu metal influences (this is not meant in the slightest as a negative!) – one of which is the aggressive Sick To My Stomach.  The final 1:15 of this song is probably the highlight of this album with some of the most memorable riffs thus far in 2024.

One criticism of this album is that it is front-loaded with many of the strongest songs at the beginning.  The next three tracks of New Paint, Creature Comfort, and Shit Eater are not bad songs by any means, but they are also not instant classics the way that some of the previous songs are.  Again, these are not bad songs – New Paint has an aggressive section with about a minute remaining with a punishing riff and similarly, Shit Eater’s bridge is a memorable one that ends the song very favorably.  

“It’s the end/It’s the end, my friends” is the fitting lyric to open the closing track, Ignore Everything.  Most of the songs on this album have an aggressive bridge with about a minute remaining and Ignore Everything is no different.  This song, and album, are over too quicklyand leave the listener wanting more.  Hopefully, it will not be another five years until the next Rarity album but until then, there is Lower Feeling to put on repeat as the soundtrack to the summer.

Rating: 8.2/10

Release Date: June 7, 2024

Tracklisting:

1) Keep it to Yourself

2) OKAY

3) Brain Dance

4) who gives a fuck?

5) Kiss!

6) Sick To My Stomach

7) New Paint

8) Creature Comfort

9) Shit Eater

10) Ignore Everything

Reviewed by Andrew Bachna