I honestly have no idea why, but I was having a bit of trouble coming up with what to say about this record for a while. No real concrete reason, I suppose. I hear records like this all the time, stuff that I’m just sort of indifferent to. It’s hardcore, has a bit of melody, pretty standard fare you know? You’ve got your breakdowns, your clean parts, the various screams, it’s nothing different.

Could it be that this is finally the record that broke my back, that just killed my ability to write about hardcore music? Or is it instead that I’m continuing this lame format for a review as long as I possibly can, while the record spins as mere background noise?

Maybe that’s what it comes down to, The Recovery is nothing more than a record you put on while you’re doing other things, just so you know that music is playing. The kind of record that just happens to come on while you’re doing laundry, and every few minutes or so you find your foot tapping to the rhythm, or you find the urge to throw your fist repeatedly into the air despite not knowing a single word to the song. Nothing sticks out. They try to have some heavy parts, and they succeed, but what from there? Be it because of production or execution, the heavy parts are still made to seem not as much so because of the vocals. Alternating between a rather inconsistent scream, In Response-era This Day Forward-esque shouting, or poorly sung choruses, Enlow does what they can to inject some variety into their music. It is the spice of life after all, right?

Spice is really the least of their concerns, however. Making memorable music, that’s what should be a concern, and frankly it’s not happening. After 4 or 5 spins of the album, which is honestly more than I give to many other similar records, nothing is sinking in. It’s the same thing I hear so many times. The sung parts come after the breakdowns, and there’s some clean leads sporadically strewn about, nothing to grasp.

So I was able to write the review after all, albeit hardly one of my best. Then you get into the question of how much effort should be put into a review of an album that’s clearly lacking it? I don’t get paid for this, I do it because I love music. So it works itself out in a natural exchange. You give me your time, I’ll give you mine.