Solid early work by Mock Orange before they absolutely blew my mind with "The Record Play" (which I don't own a physical copy of yet!). Quiet dual-vocal verses and a decently melodic chorus, packed in with several tempo changes and other items of interest. You can hear some hints of the weird time signatures and melodic greatness on their next release, but it's not quite there yet. There's a bit of experimentation in the bridge part, but the whole song feels a little like several parts put together and doesn't have a connective flow and the magic to make a fully complete whole. Still, anyone buying this in '99 would probably say, "These guys will be one to watch!"

The Borgo Pass pops up on the other side with some off/on, start/stop, quiet/loud parts. An interesting and weird distant feedback fills in some quiet bits and they sound bigger than a power trio. As is the case with late 90's emo, they go a full three minutes of instrumental introduction before the vocals kick in and, honestly, they're not really worth the wait. I think maybe they should have stuck with being an instrumental band because there's an interesting chord progression under the vocals that brings more than the slightly shouty high vocals over the top of it. Not sure these guys ever released anything else, but I'd probably pick it up if I saw it to see what else they came up with.

Overall, this release seems like two bands starting to try out some things and find their footing. Mock Orange took that footing to greatness, but Borgo Pass seems to have disappeared. Music is a fickle profession, for sure.

If you like this review, you can buy me a coffee.