Album Review: Anberlin, Vital

30 October 2012

by Poppy Reid

After the lambast of emotional and stylistic schizophrenia on fifth album Dark Is the Way, Light Is a Place, Anberlin have finally found their utopia. It’s clear they’re at peace in subtle pop-rock borders, where main lyricist Stephen Christian is free to indulge in a sophisticated croon while ‘80s-style synths pepper the background.

In the wake of ten years and five albums together, the Florida five-piece were faced with the age-old decision for album six, the same decision they were forced to make from number three onward: dare they evolve or placate fans and fade into the abyss; to write, record and perform with their loyal fanbase a mind-constant, or to take the born rite of every creative type and explore new territory? It’s an idiom that’s bound to backfire whichever path is taken but while fans have always been fickle creatures, Anberlin have passed through unscathed this time.

Sure, some tracks are a little staggering when paired against previous jaunts, the tossed-off track Orpheum, and cheesy ballad Innocent (with lyrics like “I miss you so much” and “we were born to run carefree”). But with vigorous opener Self-Starter featuring Nashville singer Julia Marie, the radio-ready single Someone Anyone, and the fulgurant rage of guitars and slap percussion in Little Tyrants, most criticisms will simply bounce off of Vital’s cohesive armour.

Producer Aaron Sprinkle (MXPX, Pedro The Lion, Deftones, Emery), who helmed Anberlin’s three previous records and their Godspeed EP, has underscored the record with his distinct tautness. As he has done in the past with this band, Sprinkle has formed a portrait of what an Anberlin album should look like in 2012, bracing it against his earlier blueprints with the band.

While bands like Emery, Silverstein and Senses Fail-who underwent their embryonic stage along with Anberlin-haven’t moved beyond their cult status (bar the release of Silverstein’s Short Songs album in February), Anberlin have grown quite soft, in a way that should be seen as perennial rather than weak.

The fact Vital has failed to creep past the ARIA’s Top 40 doesn’t make this band any less fascinating; it’s still their fourth to chart here in Australia and as Christian chants in the sullen dolor of album closer God, Drugs & Sex - “let go, let go of me now, I’m already gone,” in one litany he addresses his fans’ possessiveness of earlier sounds and captures the crux of what has made Anberlin so significant.