Cities
Anberlin
Stephen Christian's voice gives Cities a strong identity before Anberlin start trying anything especially unusual. Clear, high and full of urgency, it can lift a straightforward rock chorus or hold attention over a much quieter arrangement. The band's third album gives him plenty of opportunities to do both.
After the short introduction, Godspeed gets things moving with a sharp guitar attack and an immediately memorable vocal. Adelaide is more openly pop-minded, keeping the pace up while making the chorus feel effortless. The band have a good sense of how much energy a song needs, and the guitars often add a small detail that makes the familiar structure feel more alive.
The Unwinding Cable Car is where the range becomes clearer. Acoustic guitar takes the lead, and the harmonies give Christian's melody an extra warmth. The song doesn't feel like the band taking a compulsory break from the louder material. It has enough personality to stand alongside it, with the quieter arrangement making the vocal more affecting.
Dismantle. Repair. moves between those two sides particularly well, allowing a more restrained passage to develop into a much larger emotional release. The change feels purposeful because the melody stays at the centre. There Is No Mathematics to Love and Loss brings a different colour through its synthesizers, showing another way the band can shift the sound without losing their focus.
The closing (*Fin) is the most ambitious piece. It begins quietly, grows in scale and eventually brings a choir into the arrangement. That could easily become excessive, but the song gives the larger sound a clear reason to arrive. It is a strong ending because the band follow the emotion far enough to make the change convincing.
Cities has the accessible hooks of pop-punk and the more open emotional style associated with emo, but its best moments reach beyond a neat genre description. The arrangements have room to develop, the quieter songs have weight and Christian gives everything a recognisable voice. Anberlin sound confident enough here to make the immediate songs work and patient enough to let the more ambitious ones unfold.
