The Helio Sequence is a band that has had several indy releases, and Keep Your Eyes Ahead, released by Sub Pop Records is a nice surprise when I threw it on the iTunes for the first time not too long ago.  Overall, Keep Your Eyes Ahead is an enjoyable and even record, in that the high points aren’t the most awesome, but the low points aren’t the most terrible music I have heard this year, either.  I think the album suffers a little from the fact that the lead vocals aren’t exactly world-class, but they are passable.  On the right tracks, they sound great…on the wrong type of song, they are a little lacking.  Singing ability aside, the lyrics are all pretty good stuff, if a little depressing to the downright heartbreaking as Keep Your Eyes Ahead is a breakup record, no doubt about it.  Hit the jump for the full review.

The first few songs on this album are kind of all over the place.  Track one is Lately, and is more in line with the rest of the album in terms of their approach to songwriting and how it literally sounds on the record.  They follow it up with the spacy, liquid sounding Can’t Say No, which seems a bit out of place.  Next up is The Captive Mind, which has these guys channeling their inner MGMT, and the next song, You Can Come to Me has the guys channeling their inner Postal Service, as it’s a much more experimental sounding electronica type of song with its sampling of video game sounding effects.

After this mishmash of the first four tracks, the record settles way down with Shed Your Love, which has some of those fragile and heartbreaking lyrics over a sweet picked guitar.  Very folksy sound and it works really really well; to me it’s the best track on the album, maybe because it’s so simple or his voice doesn’t sound better on any of the other tracks. 

Following by the fairly nondescript and unremarkable Keep Your Eyes Ahead is Back to This, a song with an interesting beat and chill groove.  The album is capped off with the trio of the excellent Hallelujah, the folksey Broken Afternoon and the somewhat strange No Regrets, because like Can’t Say No, No Regrets feels a little out of place, but since it’s the final track, the discontinuity is much more forgiveable.

Overall, Keep Your Eyes Ahead is an enjoyable record that isn’t exactly going to blow any minds anytime soon.  The Helio Sequence does the folk influenced stuff really well, but some of their more driving stuff leaves a bit to be desired, in composition/arrangement and vocals.  I hope they come through Dallas at some point because I think that some of this would translate well live, as long as they can keep a relatively intimate feel to their show.  It would be interesting, nonetheless.  At any rate, check out the tracks below and pick up Keep Your Eyes Ahead.

Daigle Rate - 75

The Helio Sequence - Shed Your Love - Keep Your Eyes Ahead
The Helio Sequence - Back to This - Keep Your Eyes Ahead

Very limited upcoming tour dates:

Jul 12 Sub Pop 20th, Redmond, WA
Jul 19 Siren Festival Main Stage, Brooklyn, NY (Stillwell Stage)
Aug 09 Tollefson Plaza, Tacoma, WA
Sep 06 Crystal Ballroom, Portland, OR