System and Station: Here Is Now

This Portland outfit has been compared to everyone from Quasi to Built To Spill. And it’s a decent comparison when listening to the indie-meets-shoe-gazing “Find the Shore” with RFK Heise’s interesting delivery. Definitely more appealing is the ramshackle rock oozing out of “When You’re the Witness”, as it weaves a pretty sonic pattern. The group isn’t your standard, formulaic ensemble, at times mixing electronic or ambient touches with a straightforward rock feeling. The result is a bigger than life song like, “I’ll See It When I Believe It”, which resembles Stereophonics covering Coldplay. At times, songs come off as too moody, with too many things occurring at once, as is the case with “No One Could Know”. It’s the exception to a rule that System and Station sticks to, namely creating finely tuned tracks such as the rich “Give Us a Sign”, and the retro Zep-like feel behind “Awful Shame”, as well as the classic rock found in “Future Of You”.