6.5/10
Our Friend and The Spiders are a four piece band from Montreal, and with their first album, Walk Me Out, they establish themselves as a very competent alternative rock band that knows how to give their target audience what they want. The band has a standard alternative sound akin to bands like Foo Fighters and Queens of the Stone Age. Their style will no doubt be enjoyable to people who enjoy bands like these, but unfortunately, it’s not enough to keep me coming back for too long.
The opening track to this album, “Your Ghost”, doesn’t do too much to grab the listener’s attention. The standard guitar-bass-drum combination of musicians don’t really try anything musically ambitious or even remotely interesting. The vocals are unique and catchy enough on this track to make it listenable, but the record definitely could have been kicked off in a better way. On the other hand, the second track, “Wait”, ends up being one of the best moments of the album. The lyrics are more engaging than the first track, and the instrumentals take on a more echoey sound that make for a more interesting listening experience. This almost atmospheric sound is one thing that I really enjoyed about this album. The band uses it semi-frequently throughout the record, but it’s just not enough to make their sound really stick out and impress me.
There are several more tracks on the album that stick out in a positive like “Wait” does, such as “Escape” and “Black Shadow.” Other songs, such as the title track and the slightly powerful, yet largely forgettable instrumental, “Useless World”, kind of drift by without making too much of an impression. Overall, this album will probably be appealing to Our Friend and The Spiders’ target audience: fans of standard indie rock. Bands that go for this style need to really impress me with creativity and push the envelope a bit, and while I did enjoy several songs, Our Friend and The Spiders don’t quite make the cut.
Favorites: Wait (track 2), Escape (track 4), Black Shadow (track 8)
RIYL: Foo Fighters, Queens of the Stone Age, Phoenix
Reviewed by Alex McCullough
