Canadian pop rock band Marianas Trench released their fourth full length studio album last Friday, October 23rd. The album, titled Astoria, features 17 tracks produced in full by lead singer Josh Ramsay, and is heavily themed after the movie The Goonies. It is a concept album, chronicling the last two tumultuous years of Ramsay's life.
The first track is a powerful 7-minute explosion of the rock opera-esque song style that has become the trademark of the band, and leads into the disco-infused Burning Up.
Several orchestral interludes that sound as though they were taken straight from a movie score keep the album moving along to the grand finale: another 7-minute track, bursting with layered vocals, emotion, and a distinctive Masterpiece Theater energy.
The album traverses several styles of music, from the rock opera tracks, to the classical interludes, to the ukulele ballad somewhere in the middle, all while upholding modern pop sensibilities, and despite the new direction these styles have taken the album, it fits right in with the rest of the band's catalog.
Astoria is, by far, the most versatile album Marianas Trench has put out, and although they have definitely moved away from the emo rock sound that made up their first couple of releases, even fans of Fix Me will find something to love about this album.
