Finger Lakes rock band Sweats has released their second studio album, I End Where You Begin, a 50-minute project showcasing strong musicianship and vulnerable lyricism. A multi-disciplinary record, incorporating elements of bluegrass, hard rock, and funk, the band also shows no mind to brevity, with most of the project’s 10 songs angling towards the five-minute mark with solos abound.
This approach is well introduced on “Indulgent Days,” a swinging opener with subtle, echoey verses contrasting the noisy, pounding chorus. It also sets the tone for the record’s lustful lyrical approach, with lines in the chorus such as “license to misbehave, you can’t take em to your grave, these indulgent days.”
Relatively playful, the album’s opener contrasts a bit from what follows. The next track “Broken Life” features a dark lead riff, screechy rhythm guitars, and a menacing hook. “You and I pick up the pieces of a broken life, hold em together see they fit right if we hold each other tight,” the chorus articulates. “Broken Life” is also a great example of the record’s dynamics, with bendy soloing, cymbal crashing, and urgent vocals highlighting the track’s climax.
This continues for the following two tracks. The guitar work on “Whiskey Thursday” is both urgent and dream-like, with an urgent keyboard riff on the verses setting the tone for a moody track that maybe shows off the best solo on the album. The album’s impressive drum work is on display for the funky grunge-like “Lose My Mind,” with moments of creepy, metal-esque vocal delivery, and forboding lines such as “he sleeps through days and is up all night, he said ‘it’s always dark before you see the light.’”
The record’s tone doesn’t stay this way though, with playful moments such as “Strawberry Girl,” an upbeat funk rock cut with lyrics like “juices are on my chin, summer nights begin,” and the danceable piano rock of “Holding Hands” with a romantic mantra being repeated for the last minute of the song: “I know you’re getting tired of the way things have to be, you don’t ever get tired of dreaming away with me.”
When I End Where You Begin isn’t angsty or cheery, it has its stretches of lust and melancholy. On “Witchoo,” the song’s jagged guitar solo adds expression to its slow, subdued approach, assisting wistful lines such as “thinking of the right things to say and do, as I dream away the night time just trying to be with you.”
“Nicks,” the longest song on the album at nearly seven minutes, marks the record’s emotional point as its penultimate track. “I saw you with a friend of mine I hadn’t seen in years, you saw me with a soggy mind after a couple beers,” the opening line articulates. While also subdued, the song’s two solos and explosive outro make the emotional payoff of the song all the more visible.
The album’s final track “Too Many Cooks” is much more playful and laid back than what comes before it, with sardonic lyrics that almost seem political. “Everything’s broke, no one needs fixin, everything’s a joke, nobody’s gigglin’, and if you see smoke don’t be surprised, it’s just the world on fire,” the chorus articulates. It’s a closer which doesn’t relate much to the rest of the record, but it still fits, covering a bit of extra musical ground.
Overall, I End Where You Begin is a strong album with impressive showings of musicianship on each track. Its lyrics are personal, it covers plenty of stylistic territory, and finishes right where it feels right.
