REVIEW:
Scales of Motion - Nocturnes
Recommended for fans of: Edison Glass, MeWithoutYou, later-career Mae
First, a brief but necessary history.
Nearly thirteen years have passed since I first met Chris and Kevin Skillern, the brothers that make up two-thirds of Tulsa alt-rock outfit Scales of Motion. Back then, they were plowing through some original pop-punk tunes under the name 77 Watts, with a fill-in drummer that was trying his hardest to keep up. Shortly after, the Skillerns scrapped 77 Watts in order to begin anew under the name At All Costs. At All Costs (which was seriously a fun band to watch) captured the attention of a few of us with their brand of fast-paced melodic rock, which was dubbed "speed-emo" by a group of their fans. After a slight adjustment of line-up, At All Costs released their final record, O, Precious Funnel Cloud, with drummer Craig Maricle, before disappearing yet again. They soon re-emerged once more as Scales of Motion, with a fresh batch of decidedly more sophisticated songs which showed tremendous musical growth and maturity.
Fast forward to the spring of 2011, when I recieved my pre-ordered copy of Scales of Motion's fourth studio record, Nocturnes. I had just enough time to load the record onto my music player before heading to the aiport to fly out of town. My flight, luckily, was delayed by an hour, which gave me just enough time to find a nice, quiet corner of the terminal in which to enjoy Nocturnes.
Kevin Skillern's guitar tone hasn't changed much in the last decade. So when the subdued but interesting opening guitar lines of the album's leading track, "Darkness," made their way to my ears, I couldn't help but grin a little at the familiarity. The driving, 6/8 ballad-esque "Darkness" opens the record much like a prologue to a good book, hinting at what's to come, without spoiling all the surprises. It's followed by "Still We Sing," which ends in Scales' own take on a wide-open "Hallelujah Chorus."
The duration of the record effectively showcases a remarkably wide range of musical capability. Ballads are followed by driving odd-metered numbers, which are then followed by straight-ahead rock tunes. Nocturnes in certainly for the listener who has an appreciation for real texture and dynamic.
The record's next-to-last track, "Phases," ended up as my favorite from Nocturnes. It opens up with some goosebump-inducing allusions to what has become Scales' signature song, "Make Me Glow," from 2008's Cave Dweller. "Phases" might be the band's most heartfelt songwriting effort to date, playing tastefully to the sentimental. It's a perfect example of their ambition to write songs that truly belong to their listeners, with words that some of us have uttered of our own accord, such as the recurring line "teach me to find hope in the darkest times."
Lyrically, Nocturnes is in a category of it's own. The entire record is decidedly Christian, but it lacks the tired cliches and generic religious babbling that's often found in the disconnected Christian artist that writes Christian music because he or she is just "supposed to." On the contrary, when you hear a lyric like "Help me stand alongside the outcast, the poor, and the small," you can't help but believe that these men write about what they are truly convicted of. This is particularly commendable for Scales, having been born out of a Christian music scene where most of their peers abandoned the practice of expressing their faith through music as soon as it stopped being the easiest way to gain an audience.
Another aspect of this record that I appreciated is the fact that these guys didn't write twelve random songs and throw them together and call it a record. The songs on Nocturnes belong together. Even deciding on the order of the songs has proved to have been an involved, artistic process.
Nocturnes was a long time coming. Chris, Kevin, and Craig poured themselves into this record for a very long time, and it's genuinely something to be experienced. However, I don't believe that it can be fully appreciated on its own. I know that a large part of my deep enjoyment of this record is the sentiment. Therefore, I certainly recommend buying Nocturnes, but I would also strongly recommend getting your hands on a couple of Scales' other offerings, in order to fully understand this latest stretch in their journey.
-JR
