Review: Sperry Alan: “Before Our Time”
I like alt-rock as much as the next guy. I enjoy the colouring-outside-the-lines element of the 
genre and the desire to not allow a guitar sound as if it was perfectly manipulated using an iPhone app.
When Sperry Alan‘s third album, Before Our Time, gets going with “Hold on Tight,” it immediately feels like you’re travelling toward Dinosaur Jr. land. The early sonic progression feels reminiscent of J. Mascis and crew, but as the song continues along it becomes easy to forget about the comparison.
What’s appreciated about Sperry Alan is the interest vocalist Jon Alan Sperry has with regards to making his voice the true focal point of the album. While it is unique and not easy to pin against someone else’s, it has a hard time pulling you in and making you hang on every word presented.
On a whole, I tried listening to this album multiple times in different head spaces, in order to give it a fair shot. But regardless of the mood I was in, the music was unable to get any kind of reaction out of me. I won’t go as far to say that Before Our Time is devoid of emotion, but it needs something to push it above the “yeah, this is okay, but…” measuring stick.
-Adam Grant
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