Wiki
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Release Date
24 September 2007
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Length
10 tracks
KERRANG
Sparking debut from hotly tipped brit rockers, Like enthrawling post-hardcore? meet your new favourite band.
KKKK's
ROCKSOUND
Spiky, technical and aggressive, MMISL weild time signature's as if practicing capoeira with lightsabers to form a choppy blend of hardcore that cannot fail to invigorate
8/10
DROWNED IN SOUND
Once you succumb to the ride and just let go, it will carry you through. And on the way you can enjoy the fantastic talent on display - tangled riffs and spliced rhythms that you only wish you could dream up, let alone play. This is a challenging, unsettling, superb debut
8/10
THE FLY
Everything about "variations on swing" is full on, from the impossibly fast drumming, just about keeping up with the Attention Deficit disorder key signature's. They make at-the-drive-in sound more like busted circa 2000
4/5
CONTACT MUSIC
Meet Me In St. Louis are a pure revelation. Angular, stark and technically beautiful, they peddle a gorgeous hybrid of eclectic noise. It shares similarities with Faraquet, HP Zinker and perhaps on a more contemporary tip, At The Drive In. It's altogether a more mature and considered approach to the whole affair though, blending cutting, jagged riffs with a carefully considered sensitivity. it is undoubtedly an extremely strong contender for best album of 2007.
4/5
THE MUSIC MAGAZINE
44 minutes of exhilarating post-hardcore and a sound all their own. Mixing the fast a furious with the delicate and eloquent the five-some disperse all pretenders with a flourish. The talent and skill that goes into music like this, utilising constantly changing time signatures, surprising song structures, intelligent lyrics and wild guitars is to be admired and respected
4/5
NEW NOISE
they don’t even sound like they care what anyone else thinks. In fact from start to finish ‘Variations On Swing’ actually fights to defy expectation, approval and routine. Off-time pulses, electronic noise and awkward riffs flood forward from songs so taut they could snap.jumbled noises and vocal hooks that will swim from your speakers to your brain like a shark looking for a meal and then, maybe immediately or maybe only after really, truly listening, the jaws will clamp down and great, dark sections of songs will be stuck in your synapses and neurons for days.
SUBBA-CULTCHA
Unassailable albums: become concerned about the safety of your lofty positions - Meet Me In St Louis have provided a debut of perfect post-hardcore abuse that can neither be fathomed nor faulted.Truly a multi-faceted war machine and a delight to behold.
5/5
STUDENT DIRECT
Seriously, what do these guys have for breakfast? Whatever it is, they need to share, so other people can make an album as good as this. One of the best of 2007.
9/10
SPUTNIK-MUSIC
“Variations on Swing” fits in this year by single handedly one upping Hot Cross’s “Risk Revival” in terms of the best post-hardcore release. This is a band to watch and a debut LP that is easily one of the best albums of 2007.
4/5
DIE SHELLSUIT DIE
Occasionally it is a pleasure to review an album. At this point step forward Meet Me In St. Louis, I salute you for being just utterly and spellbindingly brilliant. in terms of inventive rock music, few can come close to capturing what MMISL have created here. In fact the scariest thing is that if it sounds this good and ferocious on CD, what is it going to be like live? I have to feel a little sorry for the bands kind enough to take MMISL out on tour with them. Prepared to be upstaged.
9/10
ROCK MIDGETS
They've crafted a quite brilliant debut that proudly stands head and shoulders above the vast majority of their British peers. Quite where they go from here is anybody's guess.
4/5
HERTFORDSHIRE MERCURY
Meet Me In St Louis blend acute pop-punk sensibilities with ear-shredding hardcore to createwell, a bloody great racket. Not for the faint-hearted, their explosive debut hits you like bottled adrenochrome - all schizophrenic thrash mayhem that shifts tempo and pattern sporadically yet never stumbles into insufferable atonality.
THE MUSIC ZINE
All in all Variations On Swing is a brilliant album in a genre full of misses this is what post-punk should sound like. Connected yet angular staccato guitar over driving bass-lines. Good stuff!
5/5
THE BLUE LIGHT DISTRICT
As cynical as I’ve become, bands like Meet Me In St. Louis prove that there’s still some hope left in contemporary music. Aggressive, uplifting and damn near poetic, St. Louis are a thing of beauty.
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