Album Review: Movements – No Good Left To Give

When Movements formed, vocalist Patrick Miranda was just 19. That’s an undeniably tender age, but the singer was nevertheless able to articulate deep ideas about the state of his mental health, channelling his wrecked emotions Feel Something, the California band’s acclaimed and accomplished 2017 debut album. Now 24, Patrick is no less scared of baring his soul on this follow-up. Recorded with producer du jour Will Yip (La Dispute, Panic! At The Disco, Code Orange), No Good Left To Give demonstrates how much the band – completed by guitarist Ira George, drummer Spencer York and bassist Austin Cresey – have evolved since that debut was released.

That’s to say, these 12 songs are shrouded in a distinct atmospheric mood – both musically and lyrically. From the moment the dark and almost Cure-y guitars of In My Blood kick this album off, it’s haunted by a visceral sense of anguish that doesn’t let up until the end. It’s in the quiet-loud bloom and burst of Don’t Give Up The Ghost and its suicidal tendencies, the shimmering (self-)recrimination of Garden Eyes and 12 Weeks, the jittery poeticism of Moonlight Lines, which builds and builds before exploding in a surge of uncontainable emotion.

Intriguingly, the title track is just 95 seconds long, but it’s a heavy 95 seconds that forms the emotionally draining intro for the album’s swansong, Love Took The Last Of It. It’s in that song that you feel the culmination of not just the previous 40 or so minutes, but the band’s career to date. As with their first album, No Good left To Give finds strength in weakness. It doesn’t necessarily make good of a bad situation, because the bad stuff is very much present and live in these songs here, but it shows that the void and the emptiness is not necessarily all-encompassing – that, however hard at times it may be to remember this, there is always hope.

Verdict: 4/5

For Fans Of: Boston Manor, Balance And Composure

No Good Left To Give is released on September 18 via Fearless.

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