Burnt House - Burnt House

Burnt House

Burnt House
self-released; 2016

3.7 out of 5

​By April H

Burnt House is a four-piece British alternative rock band formed in 2014 with this self-titled album Burnt House being their first release. The album was recorded at 14 Records, but they also have ties to the US as their second album that is currently underway was recorded at Bomb Shelter Studio in Nashville. It will be interesting to see if or how their sound is affected by the Nashville influences.

“Rise/Time” opens the story line of the album with a fairly predictable set of lyrics that many millennials may identify with. That feeling of perhaps being misunderstood or just not fitting in but at the same time wanting to in fact find their own way. 

“Reflections” seems to search for more than just the happy endings we often search for. The underlying idea being the amount of time we waste looking for happiness when we may already be there if we looked at our own lives. The mirror on one’s life reminds the listeners to search for the positive in daily life and find happiness there instead of looking to what others describe as being happy. It seemed to be a very pop music theme wrapped in a bit of a raspy alternative package. “Wrong Turns” continued on that same path with a little bit of a disconnect between the subject of the song and the genre. 

The midway point of the album continues down a pretty predictable path with “Furthermore,”  “My Eyes” and “Any Indication” following the same general path on the unhappiness of a misunderstood youth. Many of these songs started to blend together without much to set them apart from a pretty standard set of rock alternative tunes. 

“House Into A Home” was a different track from the rest of the album and by far my favorite of the group. The feel was less dreary and more relaxed as far as taking life as it comes at you. I enjoyed the change of pace and saw this as being a choice for a single release. It not only added to the overall story of the album that seemed to ramble at times, but also was pretty solid alone. 

Adding to the change in the feel of the album, “Holy Water” has an almost haunting quality with so much more emotion than many of the other songs. This too could be a decent stand alone song with less of an alternative feel than most of the album. There was much more of a guitar heavy feel to this song, and again a deeper meaning it seems. 

​The album ended with “Rise (Reprise)” which seems like a built in encore for the rest of the story and a true traditional rock anthem. The haunting of “Holy Water” seemed to continue with a bit more of a Christian rock feel.

Overall, this is a good album with a number of great songs. Recommended.

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