By Jason Grishkoff | July 6th, 2010
Polaris at Noon is releasing the track “Time” with a bit of hoopla today: at 10:30pm PST it will debut on MTV’s “The City”. Fortunately for us, we don’t actually have to sit through that reality trash: Jason Suwito has provided us the single as a first glimpse of his band’s upcoming sophomore release, “Season Two”. With it, Polaris at Noon looks to continue the “serialization” of music that defined their first album (“Season One”), which was released song-by-song on a weekly basis.
The first few seconds of “Time” begin with a piano-based riff that reminds me of work by European artist Mew. The similarity, however, stops there. What follows is something a bit closer to Paper Route, relying heavily on solid guitar licks layered over electronic-rock-based synth. I find certain parts of the song to be particularly captivating, such as the bridge that begins around 2:30. On the opposite end of the spectrum, the “chorus” first featured at the one-minute mark can be hard to swallow, owing perhaps to its simple progression over solid, uninspiring guitar-work.
Serializing music is an interesting approach, assumedly aimed at drawing out the attention of fans waiting in dire anticipation of the next-to-be-released single. “Time” has certainly sparked my interest, though I’m not sure I can follow ~eleven consecutive weeks of intense anticipation unfolding around each song. Then again, the simple fact that I’m now concious of the band’s approach likely means I’ll have no choice but to remain tuned in.