A written review demands more than simply linking to articles on the inadequecies of genre labelling systems and music-journos’ trait of inventing new words to describe certain bands that are tricky to identify in short snappy one-liner sentences. The Zox make this awkward by covering a very broad range of noticible influences and styles throughout ‘The Wait’, jumping seemlessly from one genre to another completely unrelated while building a sense of fit where such changes work perfectly naturally.
Thirsty starts us off with a bouncy pop rock riff with ska beats that occasionally run away to induldge in guitar-geek classical solo-ing. Carolyn then jumps into emo hardcore mellowness and radio friendly vocals. A Little More Time then slides us back to a reggae rhythm with teen punk vocals leading you gently through the song before Anything But Fine’s violin intro turns into a beautiful balladeering time out before the album’s darkest moment with Better If It’s Worse.
From there we’re given glimpses into almost stadium sized guitars during Bridge Burning unfortunately making things a little too epic for the next few tracks and slowing the record’s pace down away from my three-minute attention span. Luckily the quirkiness of Satellite and gypsy-folkish & classical violins throughtout Fallen regain interest before the more succesful anthemic & stadium sized rock finish of I Am Only Waiting.
Zox’s ‘The Wait’ is a fairly cool cult alternative indie album you can turn up and listen to but leave your parents saying “oh, they sound quite nice” — everything ticks over in a thoroughly unoffensive & decent manner that I fear will grow and grow on me each listen until I’m wondering why I wasn’t raving like a lunatic about the album as I type here.
