Eastern Youth score high marks with their new album, What Can You See From Your Place. Darkly poignant and intelligent, this is not what one might expect as a follow-up to the almost bubble gum tracks off of last year's split with Cursive; indeed, this is a stirring, anthemic, even ambitious approach to distortion-driven punk based songwriting.

Navigating styles like a banana floating down the Potomac, the marriage of east coast melodic hardcore, concept rhythms, and Japanese lyrics create a familiar yet unique atmosphere, one that is inviting to enter, then increasingly capturing, rather than formulaic and boring. This is the type of melodic hardcore American bands were doing before the big emo/pop punk explosion: creative and ingenuitive.

The only complaint I have heard about this album is that people have no idea what they are singing about. My answer? Buy the cd, cheapskate, there are translations in the insert.

-Dave Mandell