REVIEW: City Windows' "Velvet Divorce"

San Diego’s City Windows have pulled up with their second record. I was in no way familiar with City Windows before this record but from what I can see it seems like they’re really killing it in their own live scene. Unfortunately I didn’t connect much with Velvet Divorce on first listen but as time went on I recognized it was more than that. Instrumentally City Windows comes across as fairly basically pop punk with not much to discern them from other bands in their genre. There is an occasional mix in that adds some spice to the moment, the most notable being the fiddle outro on “Another Year.” Even at that though a lot of this boils down to whatever you imagine a pop punk track to be. They do occasionally try to do the post-hardcore thing with songs like “Old Storms of Hawthorne” but even that sort of ends up being middle of the road. But! It does make the vocalist’s vocal style mix well, better than any other track on the record really.

And, speaking of vocals, the performances here are sort of where I get turned off. Throughout this entire record this front person is sort of just rhasping their way through tracks in a way that I don’t even believe their voice naturally reaches that register. When the performative style stops though and we commit to singing or screaming it actually goes over really well like on “The Price to Pay,” which almost comes off as a highlight here but ultimately also just sort of blends in. When it's bad it’s really bad. On both the title track and “T.I.M.S.” there is a delivery that just sort of sounds like a musician trying their absolute best to sound hard but kind of sounding ill instead.


Basic pop punk and hardcore, a hard to swallow vocalist and politics that you’d agree with but expect. There’s nothing really making me want to come back to City Windows when other, better records of this genre are being released right now. Still, I respect the grind, I respect a band that stands out in their community. I just can’t lie and say this record didn’t have the effect of either blending into the wallpaper or actively grating me.


Our Rating - 4/10

  1. Another Year
  2. The Price to Pay
  3. Velvet Divorce
  4. Pale Face
  5. Old Storms of Hawthorne
  6. Interlude
  7. Pill Pusher
  8. T.I.M.S.

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