It’s a tough time to be in a rock band. Conyers, GA foursome Cartel have lived the downside of the music industry bubble, both metaphoric and literal. Now three albums and an EP into a rollercoaster career that’s taken them from half-empty bars to TRL and halfway back, and from indie The Militia Group to major label Epic to indie-major Wind-up Records, they’ve opted to go it alone, self-releasing their latest EP, In Stereo. But while Cartel are now theoretically free to do whatever they want, don’t expect any major surprises here. In Stereo is the logical successor to the retrenchment of 2009’s Cycles, a slightly-further-reaching follow up from a band with a clear sense of who they are.
There’s nothing on In Stereo as grandiose as the champagne supernova of Cartel’s “If I Were To Write The Song,” nothing as experimental as Chroma’s “Q” & “A” suite. In Stereo focuses on the variations possible within the three-minute pop-punk song formula rather than ranging outside of it. To that end, “Conduit” features some of the band’s most aggressive guitar sounds to date, with a spacey, echoed-and-delayed lead that darts and dodges around the song’s groove. The verses of “American Dreams” verses stomp forward like distant cousin of Chroma’s “Matter Of Time;” the tight reins on their vocal melody make the track’s breezy chorus soar all the higher in contrast.
