Adventures - Clear My Head With You [7-inch] (Cover Artwork)
Staff Review

Adventures

Clear My Head With You [7-inch] (2013)

No Sleep Records


In a scene thoroughly influxed by superfluous, similar-to-the-main-band side projects, Adventures are an outlier. Featuring ⅗ of Code Orange Kids, the group are a more straightforward, reflective and altogether accessible entity, almost a counterpoint to the powerviolence/thrash/gutteral hardcore of COK. Clear My Head With You is their second EP, following up their self-titled effort from last year, and it's enjoyable because of its expansion. Everything is louder and airier, but it's also pleasantly familiar in a ‘90s alternative/emo kind of way.

Reba Meyers, who screams and growls in Code Orange Kids, shows off impressively raw, authentic and versatile vocals once again on Clear My Head With You. Her voice is lower in the mix and more distant-sounding on this EP than it was on the first one, but as a stylistic choice it works: "I Can't Say" is loud and dramatic, with huge, crunchy guitars and some impressive vocal harmonizing and the production really highlights the percussion on "Promise," especially at each end of the song.

Cathartic screams hover slightly under the surface on the title track, while melancholy guitars and methodical drums circle around them, creating an unconventionally heavy finished product. Meanwhile, "The Light Brings Without" is a slower, softer affair laced with moroseness. It probably would've fit better as the closer to the first side, but it's a solid song nonetheless.

With Code Orange Kids gaining popularity and acclaim, it would seem that Adventures will remain a part-time project for the foreseeable future. If the band ever have the time and energy to write and release a full-length, it'll have a chance to be great.