From Wichita based rockers VEHICLES comes a record that’s far more than what I could have imagined. This opulent alternative rock record is loaded with a combination of stylistic influences and marks from the 80s while bringing that synth energy to modern audiences through larger than life arrangements that have you feeling like you’re in a stadium. The now sixteen year old outfit have clearly honed their sound and vision into something much more coherent and distinctive. To put it succinctly, their sound’s able to merge and bring together themes of darkness with hopefulness. Despite the seemingly opposed moods, it manages to work and bounce off each other wonderfully so.
The songs are the brainchildren of lead singer/guitarist Cody Cloud and decorated by guitarist/vocalist Isaac Pearson, bassist Tony Hull, keyboardist Cale Gubitz and drummer Thayne Coleman.
It’s in the guitar work that you’re able to notice the distinctiveness of their sound. My favourite piece on the record, the album’s opener ‘Diamonds & Rhinestones’ is carried by a stadium level chorus but really driven and built on the bedrock of a mesmerizing riff and an even more hypnotic electric solo that has you craving a replay each time it goes by you.
Immense and immersive, it’s a full bodied rock project that’s blending styles, emotions, themes, and more. Revel in the beauty of ‘Belief in Habits’.