November 21st, 2012 
Adrian Garza 
Artist: From Indian Lakes
Album: Able Bodies
Genre: Indie Rock
Label: Unsigned
Over the last several months I’ve noticed that many of my music-savvy west coast friends have taken a serious liking to what they’ve labeled as this hot new band from central California called From Indian Lakes. Perhaps you’ve heard of them? If not, let me introduce you to them by simply describing them as a frantically elegant indie rock band.
Able Bodies sees the band doing some more of what people have already come to expect by From Indian Lakes. What Able Bodies doesn’t see is FII making any significant departures from The Man With Wooden Legs, the band’s last full-length offering from 2009. As a whole, there are times where the record sounds like a 43-minute long lullaby, at other times, the record sounds like what a modern day rock & roll band could sound like if they were giving their own spin off of an Elliot Smith album, and I have absolutely no problem with that whatsoever.
Different is always good.
Most of the standout tracks from this album come in pairs. At the beginning, it’s the track “Anything” that gives the record a major build-up. The drums are so chilling with an overall consistent pattern that sticks around for the first half of the song. “We Are Sick” follows with this very rich and thick chorus that really helps power the track.
The album’s first single, “Breaking My Bones”, comes in midway through the record. As abrasive as it comes off, it complements the next track, “I Don’t Know You”, quite well. Remember where I described the record as a mix of lullabies and rock & roll? Well these two songs make for the best examples.
To me, “We Follow” is the gem on this album. This is mostly said out of my pure fascination with the bridge of the song where the band’s vocalist, Joey Vannucchi goes through this shout sequence that seems to take some influence from today’s trend of talk-poetry in music. The track has a little hints of everything that’s already been featured throughout the album through both fast and slow parts. The momentum that was (quickly) picked up from this song leads directly into “Till’ I Can Walk”, the album’s final track. The beginning seems a little lacking, but the closing three minutes of the song really brings out the absolute best of the album with it’s incredibly textured tone, hectic-yet-fitting guitar work, soothing vocals, spot-on drumming, and meaningful lyrics.
The band really brings it to the table with Able Bodies. None of the songs in this album come off as unnecessary, but if all of the album’s better cuts made it’s way onto an EP , I would be giving it a nearly-perfect rating. But what could be seen as filler tracks keep that from happening. This isn’t a band that should be ignored, and with a release like this, they might be a little hard to ignore for the rest of 2012 and on.
Score: 8.5/10
Review written by: Adrian Garza (Twitter)
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