Sometimes, musicians just have to disconnect their power cords, click off the distortion and crank out deep acoustic jams. It takes a certain level of skill to record an entire acoustic album. With no sonic illusions or electronic distractions to keep the listener interested, the quality of the songs, instrumentation and the lyrics are all laid bare for everyone to see and hear. If the bands aren’t comfortable with it, the performance can get quite ugly, but thankfully this isn’t always the case. While we have nothing against stacks of amps and distortion pedals, acoustic guitars and other non-electric instruments let performers showcase their songwriting skills and musical genius without all the hardware and technology distracting from their talent and artistry.
“We took songs from our whole catalog of music and stripped them back and gave them an alternate life.”
On December 2nd, the Hawaiian-bred, Santa Barbara-based reggae-influenced alternative rock band Iration released their latest installment titled Double Up. Reworked at the renowned 17th Street Recording Studios in Costa Mesa, California, this acoustic album is wonderfully rich and immersive considering the lack of heavy instrumentation. Lead singer Micah’s vocals delivers with fullness and purpose without any unnecessary interference. If you make it through this record without feeling any emotion, we suggest you seek psychiatric help immediately. The technical finger picking of “Time Bomb” and insane style of guitar wizardry on “Turn Around” doesn’t need swells of percussion and other distractions to smack you around the head with its ridiculous levels of greatness.
When speaking about the album, lead singer Micah adds, “We’re really pumped to announce the release of Double Up, our new acoustic release. We took songs from our whole catalog of music and stripped them back and gave them an alternate life. We thought about a wave doubling up and the fact that it’s another version of the same entity. That’s what Double Up is, another version of these songs.”
Double Up features a mix of the band’s hits from their previous releases, including “Reelin” off their most recent full-length Hotting Up (2015); “One Way Track” and “Back Around” from 2013’s Automatic; “Summer Nights” from their Fresh Grounds EP (2011); and “Time Bomb” and “Falling” off 2010’s Time Bomb. Both Hotting Up and Automatic peaked at #1 on Billboard’s Reggae Albums Chart with Time Bomb reaching #2 on the chart.
Catch Iration on their Lost & Found Winter Tour with Protoje in the following cities below.
Preview and download Double Up on
Track listing
- Turn Around
- One Way Track
- Time Bomb
- Reelin
- Summer Nights
- Home
- Back Around
- No Time
- Let Me Inside
- Falling
Iration “Time Bomb” from Double Up
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Release Date: December 2, 2016 • Copyright: 2016 3 Prong Records
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Disclaimer: All views presented in this album review are those of the reviewer and not necessarily those of Top Shelf Music.
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