Person L grew out of Kenny Vasoli’s frustrations with the limitations of pop-punk and emo. In 2006 Vasoli put his main act, The Starting Line, on hiatus and moved away from the textbook emo sound (generally a good thing). He and his new bandmates sought a more refined, diverse style, and thus, Person L was born. This put Person L on the spot. It had to be proven that Vasoli could do something genuinely different, and not something in masquerade. The Positives, their second LP, serves as the giant measuring stick to where this band is headed, and where they stand in shadow of Vasoli’s prior work.
Things don’t bode well for Person L when you glance around at the people associated with the project. A former member of Circa Survive (Anthony Green) is playing in the band, Aaron Marsh of Copeland is producing, and the band is touring with Underoath and Motion City Soundtrack. Perhaps Vasoli has made some friends amongst his peers, but it’s much harder to attain rebirth when you’re surrounding yourself with the exact same people you wish to differentiate yourself from. And at the end of the whole thing, there’s a lot of head-scratching, for a lot of different reasons.
The album somehow manages to escape the mundane work of The Starting Line and becomes vibrant pop. Again, it’s unclear how a group with this background could team up to be this different. But whatever, the results are there. “Hole in the Fence” could be construed as emo if you take the band’s history into account. But really, it’s just a thoughtful, fingerpicked acoustic song with an ethereal quality. Immediately, Vasoli shows a willingness to tame his energy for a subdued performance before turning the latter half of the song over to a crescendo of bustling instruments. It’s unexpected, but above all, it works well. “Good Days” has all the elements of a Starting Line song (not good), but makes them work. It’s not bad, although it’s missing some of the depth of “Hole in the Fence.” However, the aggression doesn’t seem forced, the energy is properly allocated, and a thoughtful melody is forged. This is when the unexpected starts kicking in. “Goodness Gracious” is a lo-fi frenetic rock song, in a blues-rock vein, but more jagged. The song is pretty decent in execution; no part of the song really steps up, yet everything stays solid. “New Sensation” delves into this style even further, and comes off sounding like an 80s boogie song. Pretty damn strange, all things considered! And normally I shake that type of music off, but it’s actually kind of fun.
And then…talk about pulling the rug out from under someone. “Stay Calm” is a melancholy, methodically driven pop song, led by guitars and distant washes of reverb. Another good song, but what the hell are they doing to cohesiveness? They start out with the quasi post-rock outfit of “Hole in the Fence” and snake through blues, to boogie, to melancholy pop. At this point, I’m getting confused. “Sit Tight” leans back towards the blues-rock styling, with possibly a little of that boogie left-over. Fine. You win, Person L. You’re different and I can’t figure you out. This reaches its fever pitch with “Loudmouth” and “Changed Man,” which make for a great ten minute stretch of lo-fi blues rock jams with some dirty riffing. Vasoli gets mean and aggressive and leads an impressive sounding bunch that doesn’t sound anywhere close to out of their element.
Naturally, The Positives rounds out the last few songs with this Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde routine. Did Person L leave in the “Hole in the Fence” type songs to alleviate the process of going hard-blues-rock on everybody? That seems unlikely for two reasons. First, those songs have an added level of experimentation and depth that The Starting Line couldn’t come close to matching. Those songs are already a bold departure from Vasoli’s older work, so he isn’t showing an allegiance to his past. Second, they deliver those blues rock songs with total, utter confidence. It seems they are dead set in the music they’re making now. I’m guessing this album just wanted to split up its dualities liberally, cohesiveness be damned. While you may dislike the flow, which may be a valid complaint, the songs are strong. The album does focus on the blues aspect of the band's sound, yet I do like “Hole in the Fence” and “Stay Calm” a lot, so it would be hard to part with those songs. In any respect, this album is worth hearing, both to track Vasoli’s progression and to hear twelve solid songs.
Track List:
1. Hole In The Fence (4:53)
2. Good Days (4:28)
3. The Positives (2:50)
4. Goodness Gracious (3:23)
5. New Sensation (2:35)
6. Stay Calm (4:40)
7. Sit Tight (3:11)
8. Loudmouth (3:22)
9. Changed Man (6:09)
10. Pleasure Is All Mine (3:23)
11. Untitled (5:26)
12. I Sing The Body Electric (7:12)
