Guest Post: No Action / Amid the Old Wounds – ‘No Action / Amid the Old Wounds’
Posted: by The Editor
No Action, a jangly garage band from Adelaide, Australia, has spent over a decade in the scene predominantly through splits, covers, demos, and 7”s. Meanwhile, Amid the Old Wounds serves as a solo venture for Daniel Becker of Duct Hearts and Wishes on a Plane. Their new split spans four songs totaling just under nine minutes long.
No Action’s first song, “III,” is a breezy yet excitable tune that just hits a similar stride to Braid or Paris, Texas. The danceable rhythm section and distant buzzy singing around the melody immediately made it the hookiest (and my favorite) song off the split. This is followed by No Action’s next song, “Monument to Taste,” a much more toned down song comparable to that of some Car Seat Headrest songs if they only had two minutes to spare. Overall, it’s a warm introduction to a band I was previously unfamiliar with.
Next came Amid the Old Wounds, a project recently making a name for itself through acoustic emo pop tunes in the same vein as The New Amsterdams and early Dashboard Confessional. The first song, the vinyl-exclusive “hypothetically speaking II,” is a ballad describing a damaged relationship between a son and their parent, initially feeling like a lullaby before the lyrics send a crushing blow to the heartstrings. “The Uninvited” then comes as a poetic outro to the split, delivering melancholy in typical Amid the Old Wounds fashion. Honestly, I would’ve loved a chorus for this song that came by as way too short, but I suppose that would’ve defeated the purpose.
While not being especially moved by the release on a first listen, it was with further examination I found myself enjoying it on a deeper level. I will be keeping tabs on No Action’s activity moving forward and I feel that while stylistically the Amid the Old Wounds new songs offered more of the same, Becker’s songwriting skills appear to only improve with time. I imagine on a full length with more hooky songs the project could receive a ton of love from 30-somethings everywhere reminiscing of the early 2000s emo pop scene. This split allows us a taste of that and I definitely see myself putting the openers of each side on my liked songs for repeated listens.
Disappointing / Average / Good / Great / Phenomenal
No Action / Amid the Old Wounds is out now on Time as a Color.
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David K. | @realoemo
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