Music • Xrayok’s
new album “Like Life,” is
a fresh new mix of rhythmic up-tempo
melodies. Xrayok
Xrayok music experimental with
dance pop-rock
By Angela O’Brien
Online Forty-Niner
Contributing Writer
Upon the first listen of Xrayok’s November self-released sophomore album “Like
Life,” this reporter immediately closed her eyes and let the music take
her to an untarnished utopian land, populated by the bare trees pictured on their
album cover. The foursome can almost be described as the brainy lovechild of
rock inspirations like Radiohead and Muse.
It is hard to believe Xrayok hails from a state just next door, Arizona, and
not from across the pond like their Brit-rock influenced sound leads the listener
to believe. The band describes themselves as “a lush blend of dark New
Wave, Rock and Electro that fuses Brit-rock style with spaced out keyboards.”
It is noticeable to the listener where Xrayok drew inspiration from; bands such
as Muse, Sigur Ros, Coldplay, Radiohead and Smashing Pumpkins immediately come
to mind. However, the indie rock outfit knows precisely how to make a prevalent
style of its own. The band has managed to draw elements from each of these bands,
mixing and matching its own personalized experimental approach.
Xrayok infuses rhythmic, up-tempo melodies with their indie rock ‘n’ roll
sound getting its listeners to dance with the music. Each track is executed sublimely
with every hook and intricate melody in the six-song EP. They are hardly a band
who relies on synthesizers, like most contemporary dance-rock bands. The quartet
brings just as much reverberating guitars to its music as it does with its hazy
keyboards, making a blissful experience for any listener.
The EP starts out perfectly with “The Luster.” It is a three-minute
masterpiece in which lead vocalist and songwriter TJ Hill and band molded to
get in the listeners ears and mind with dark resonance. As the listener enters
the song, Hill sends all his emotions jabbing through the air for the verses
and then brings them back down with slow, sensual moaning throughout the chorus.
The listener is sent through the same whirlwind of emotions feeling Hill’s
sting.
The only downsides to the album are the lack of completion in the lyrics. Like
clockwork, the chorus of each track is one line sang over and over again.
In the third track, “Fall of Your Eyelash,” Hill croons again and
again as the chorus, “Would you believe in love, would you believe in love?
Let it fall away.” Nevertheless, it is refreshing to hear a simple, yet
striking line repeated rather than having to listen to a singer attempt to come
up with different ways to say the same thing.
Though the lines are repetitive, Hill’s mysterious vocals make the listener
release all inhibitions and relax to the constant, steady realms of the haunting
music.
Their word reiteration occurs yet again a couple songs later with the tracks “Doesn’t
Matter” and “Sunshine.” Even so, they are flawlessly captivating
without being terribly overbearing.
Xrayok spent the end of 2005 on the road with the Lovemakers, She Wants Revenge
and Rock Kills Kid. It currently has dates lined up for a few album release shows
in its hometown of Tempe, Ariz.
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