The Actors: Anticipate Heat

Despite my somewhat shoddy updating in the latter part of 2009, this blog sill attracts a surprisingly high number of submissions. Some industry types seem convinced that this is a bad thing ("you might think that free music day-in, day-out would be great, but it's just boring. You try and fight your way through mountains of dreadful demos!" and so and so on, ad nauseam...) but I'm not for one minute implying that this is the case with me, as getting sent free music was the main point in starting this blog in the first place. However, getting through all the music I'm sent can be something of a challenge as there really aren't enough hours in the day to listen to everything. Thankfully it's a challenge I relish, as every so often one comes across a proper gem of a record, or at least the sort of diamond-in-the-rough demo that hints at greater things yet to come. The Anticipate Heat EP by San Franciscan trio The Actors sits pretty much midway between the gem and rough-diamond categories.

These guys peddle the kind of earnest pop-rock that I wouldn't normally post about. The EP's opener, Heat in the Street, is a good song, but one swallow doesn't make a summer, and after the next two tracks I was ready to put The Actors in the "average" box. The record is a competent debut, to be sure, but nothing in the first three songs grabbed my attention at all. Then - ready to put The Actors out of my mind and move onto the next record on my list - I listened to the last track, put the record on repeat and haven't stopped listening to it yet.

Spoken word songs are fickle beasts. very once in a while a great one emerges that grabs the listener and gives them a good shake, but ninety-nine percent of the time they fall flat - I have very little time for overly pretentious songs or bands that take themselves too seriously. You can only get away with that kind of behaviour if your songs are truly works of greatness, and quite frankly they rarely are. Thankfully I get the impression The Actors are fully aware of this danger. A knowing smile and a wink to camera can disguise any manner of ills, but even that approach isn't necessary here. The vocal delivery on An Unremarkable Location (the fourth and final track on this EP) is perfectly pitched^[1] - sincere without being cloying, engaging without descending too far into the theatrical. It's certainly not poetry, but the combination of the dialogue with the music is sympathetic and natural, and above all it doesn't seem forced - which can be the downfall of many of the more "worthy" spoken word efforts.

I get the impression from their promotional material that the two opening tracks are the ones the band are pinning their hopes on. As I said before, Heat in the Street is a good song - a jaunty little number with just enough of a "pop" feel to raise it into a higher category than your average rock band demo - but The Skydiver (track two) simply doesn't do it for me. If you ask me they should be pushing An Unremarkable Location as it is, in fact, quite remarkable.

The Actors - An Unremarkable Location**

The Actors - Heat in the Street**

** Addendum, Nov 2010: I've removed these tracks at the request of the band. They've apparently changed direction, and they say their early music 'isn't representative of where we're going artistically or melodically". You can keep abreast of further developments at their bandcamp page.