Graeme Miller - We Are The Circumference

Graeme Miller

We Are The Circumference
self-released; 2016

​3.6 out of 5

By Santiago Garcia
 

This crew and musical trio hail from the UK, and are the result of casual jam sessions that eventually molded into a full, studio recording band. Their organic flow and chemistry is what led to and created their newest recorded album, We Are The Circumference, and their first album together as Graeme Miller.

​The album opens up with the track titled “You Couldn’t Imagine.” The song starts out with a very nice, very calm and melodic guitar introduction. Once you hear the calming guitar melody open the track, you start to imagine what this band’s sound is going to feel like. It’s an extremely peaceful and tranquil sound. The calmness and smoothness of the guitar melody also gives a lot more emphasis on the lyrics and vocalist, and makes us pay more attention to the words. The entire first track is very slow, and extremely calming, so if that’s the music mood you are in then this album is likely going to be ideal for your chill mind. 

The second track “Sunday Morning Feathers” starts out just like the first song with a very slow chill guitar melody. The vocals are slightly more mellowed out, they complemented and stuck out better in the first track. That change is slightly more noticeable and contrasting between the first two tracks. In this second track, the vocals and guitars are probably both too soft when one should be more of the central role. The overlapping guitar melodies are really nice and clean, they do go very well with the calm mood of the album. 

While We Are The Circumference starts out with an overwhelmingly calm mood, there is in fact a slight change of pace in the album. The mood and sound gets a bit faster and more rock n' roll sounding halfway through the album. The track, “I’m a Saint, I’m a Sinner” and “Rocks from the Pocket” both have a different and more upbeat sound. These songs are less calm, acoustic, and melodic and more bluesy sounding. It’s a nice change, and a fun look at the different styles the band is capable of playing around with. 

At the same time, the varied and contrasting sounds, while fun and add some personality, are somewhat unconvincing. The more rock and blues-like sound is somewhat rough, and still not fully developed. While the varied genre and sound is fun, in this case it probably would have been better if the band just stuck to having a stronger, more defined personality and sound. The blues sounding tracks were somewhat repetitive, and took away from the band’s earlier style. The melodic, acoustic sound was more complex and could stand alone as the foundation of the tracks and should have been developed more thoroughly as the album went on.

Overall, there is plenty to appreciate on this album. Recommended. 

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