Reviews

Circa Survive vocalist Anthony Green (recently ex-Saosin) offers an insightful look at his new band’s debut album: “It’s delicate music, but it’s not too passive.” On Juturna, much intricate, reserved, yes delicate music is made, and though it may be confusing at times, one thing is certain: it’s good. Green’s erethral voice is the defining characteristic of Circa Survive’s sound; it ebbs and echoes as he explores the upper registers in between driving arrangements of exploratory guitars and swirling bass lines. The twinkling guitars conjure up images of Further Seems Forever and Green sounds like the vocalist from Sensefield; yet Juturna sounds nothing like the most recent FSF disc with the ex-Sensefield singer. Circa Survive make up their own rhythms and rules, and then refuse to play by them.  It is a very bewildering album: all lush sounds and idiosyncratic time signatures.
 
At times channeling Jupiter-era Cave-In, at others simply simmering in the future of pop music, Circa Survive offer more questions than answers. “What made you so scared?” from the song Act Appalled and “What brought you back to this place?” from With Resign give voice to the feeling of impetuous inquiry that pervades Juturna.  The song In Fear And Faith opens with a question of survival, “Can we last through the winter?”  Nothing is sure in the otherworldly pop of Circa Survive, except that lingering feeling that something great is happening in the trees around you, it’s just hidden behind the leaves. If you keep listening fall will come, and the greatness will be revealed. 
 
This is definitely an album to rock with the headphones on the sad bus ride across the city, or to play softly as sleep envelops you. The more of the dreamy vocals, jazzy off time drum beats, and circular swirling autumnal guitar lines, the more you find to appreciate.