“I want you looking over your shoulder.”
2017 marked the final release of Doylestown’s Balance and Composure. A lowkey Record Store Day EP Slow Heart preceded their final limited-run tour. With the prior release of Light We Made in 2016, the band dropped most of their emo pretenses and shifted towards a grungier, slacker rock sound to mixed reactions from long-time fans.
Fast forward to 2023 with the surprise Too Quick to Forgive single, representing more of a return to their prior style. Then came the announcement of a new full-length: With You in Spirit. Described by producer Will Yip as “their final form,” it builds off of The Things We Think We’re Missing more than a decade prior.
Opener “Restless” constructs a tense atmosphere over the first two minutes. Vocalist Jon Simmons washes his vocals in distortion atop slow plucks and bends. If this is the build then “Ain’t It Sweet” is the crescendo, immediately upping the tempo and volume. As the first “full-fledged” song with a chorus, it draws upon Balance and Composure‘s 2013 sound with greater dynamics.
I forgave God for all his small catastrophes.
Must be feeling awful,
You startled me.
I waited for you to.
I shake all the trees.
First single in the running order, “Any Means”, offers a slightly downtempo but driving track. This features both some of the slacker rock sensibilities of their previous LP while retaining the depth and soundstage of earlier work. Early on in With You in Spirit, this synthesis proves successful while also providing a selection of earworms, like the “I wanted everything that fell under the sun” refrain that closes out the song.
We hate to see you get so anxious and caught off guard,
Stay where you are.
I was so ready to tear this whole thing apart,
Letting you off.
Lead single “Cross to Bear” represents the first taste most got of the reformed B&C and understandably so. Full of cynical, sneering lyrics, it’s the most emo-influenced of the first half of the album. Released alongside a Blair Witch-influenced music video comprising of black and white trail cam footage, it serves not only to build hype (especially with next track being entitled “believe the hype”), but also to place an exclamation mark on the return.
One of the album’s standouts comes between singles in “Lead Foot”. The opening acoustic lead guitar riff sets the stage and provides the entirety of instrumentation for its first 50 seconds. Hypnotic in slowcore-like fashion, it’s one of the places where the vocals sit just on top of the backing music, awash in their glow.
Providing a shoulder for you to lean on,
And I bring you my pain.
Denying you closure,
Dwelling in all the problems I create.
For a song called “Sorrow Machine”, the next single is one of the more uptempo tracks. It again plays with the dynamics, with the instrumental bridge blowing out into the melancholy chorus. Honing on on themes of destruction, forming a circular story, which is a common motif in With You in Spirit overall. At this point, the one major complaint I can think for the album might come up, which is similarity across its tracklist. This element does also make for a cohesive package in total, so a minor gripe, especially with a strong closer.
Please recognize that I’m terrified
I’m mortified
I’m up all night
They save one of the best for last with the title track. With a strong lead-in in “Closer to God”, the closer provides, amongst other things, the most memorable refrain on the album. It acts as the wind-down, with its slippery instrumentation and tense final outro where the bottom seems to fall out. It places a period on a successful come-back, crawling quietly to a close.
While some (including myself) consider Light We Made unfairly maligned, With You in Spirit does do more across its runtime and has the components to satiate Balance and Composure fans of any era. Taking elements of their most successful eras while still driving their style forward, this makes for quite a welcome return.
8.5/10
Balance and Composure – With You in Spirit comes out this Friday, October 4th on Memory Music with pre-orders found here.