Sawyer Fredericks should be a familiar name to longtime viewers of The Voice, owing to the fact that the teenage singer-songwriter became the youngest-ever winner of the reality singing competition back in 2015. But Adam Vass (bass), Corey Stroffolino (rhythm guitar), Brad Vander Lugt (drums), and Chad Morgan-Sterenberg (lead guitar) also mix in jazz, country, and prog elements into their sound, creating a sonic backdrop for Dreyer’s words that remains unpredictable from song to song, album to album. Listening to La Dispute, you get echoes of the grandeur and intensity of At the Drive-In, the pent-up fury of Refused, and the ambient delicacy of Thursday’s quieter moments. Post-emo’s approach to emo and screamo is akin to how post-rock treated alternative rock - as Silly-Putty to sculpt into weirder, more abstract shapes. La Dispute have practically achieved elder statesmen status in the “post-emo” scene, a subgenre that counts groups like Baltimore’s Pianos Become The Teeth and L.A.’s Touche Amore as members. Which makes it all the more satisfying when they do. Whereas so many emo bands sound on record like torn-out hearts, violently gushing melodies and mash-note lyrics all over the place, there’s a cool reserve to La Dispute’s music - they often sound like they’re on the verge of erupting. But that literary background, coupled with Dreyer’s spoken delivery (recalling at times the chilling, soft-spoken monologues Brian McMahan would mumble through on Slint’s Spiderland), gave the band a unique identity. The band’s lead singer, Jordan Dreyer, wasn’t a self-identified musician at the time: He was a writer of poetry and prose, not lyrics. Formed in Grand Rapids, Michigan, in 2004, La Dispute came out weird right out of the gate.
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