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Live From Space 7/16/08
While the state of recent ska music paints the scene as a bleak and stagnant one, the Long Island-based Homecoming Queens offer a ray of hope by both challenging and building upon the conventions of the genre. In adding their own classical, jazz, and rock influences, THQ create compelling music that is as thoughtful as it is fun.
The eight-member band (which features a five-piece horn section as well as guitar, bass, and drums) utilizes each instrument to its fullest potential without sounding cluttered or chaotic. The result is a group capable of layered songs containing intricate horn arrangements and rhythms that call upon punk, ska, rock, reggae, and jazz for inspiration.
A Sound You Once Knew, the band’s first full-length album, is a 45-minute statement that reaches as broad as the band itself, without sounding disjointed or contrived. Smooth vocals and rich harmonies drive the jazz-tinged “13.4 Miles,†while other songs get as bouncy as the driving ska-punk of “Straightaway†or as dark and epic as “Heathrow.†Whatever the listener’s mood, the Homecoming Queens touch upon every facet of the genre, proving that they are fast-rising force in the scene.
