Album Review: No One Was Driving The Car by La Dispute

Forming as a high school band in Grand Rapids, Michigan in 2004, they made their full-length debut with Somewhere at the Bottom of the River Between Vega and Altair four years later. Whilst the band would subsequently move on to greater things, the album had a fairly unreconstructed 00s emo sound, and it remains a relative weak spot in their discography. Second album Wildlife (2011) made greater use of jagged guitar lines that sounded reminiscent of 90s post-hardcore greats like Fugazi and Unwound, and lead vocalist Jordan Dreyer's lyrics had a far more mature approach to storytelling than that he deployed on Somewhere's lyrics.

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Trying to grapple with the narrative strands of La Dispute's latest opus - the ominously-titled 'No One Was Driving The Car' - is not for the faint of heart. Inspired after frontman and lyricist Jordan Dreyer read the phrase in a newspaper after a self-driving car crash caused several fatalities, the album is a vivid exploration of society's growing dependence on technology and how it seems equally likely to cause our downfall. Like much of their discography so far, 'No One Was…' is a thoughtful, powerful reflection - this time, on modern life - which ebbs and flows through its concept to paint a detailed but still engaging picture.

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