Music Review // A Short Walk to Pluto "Harder to Breathe" (Edumacation Records)

http://ashortwalktopluto.com/#

One of the first things you will likely notice about the song "Harder to Breathe" is that Emma Armstrong and Danny Moriana trade off on vocals.    This can bring about ideas of bands such as Rainer Maria, but I really feel like that comparison is mostly made because of the lack of artists out there who are well known that have two vocalists.   Perhaps A Short Walk to Pluto can be one of those bands that helps there to become more artists within this genre and thus in future generations more comparisons can be made more easily.

Through acoustic strums and strings, this song has a pleasant way about it.   There are big melodies to the point where I begin to think about Straylight Run.  While it has these slower qualities which make it feel sadder, closer to emo, the song does pick up with this sweet guitar solo and then it takes off at a much faster pace.   When this happens I have no choice but to think about how back in the 1980's and 1990's (but not so much any more) you could go places to see laser light shows set to music and this feels like a perfect finale for that.

The overall message of this song seems to be one of travelling to find another person and then that person making you happy, as evidenced by the line: "It's harder to breathe when you smile".   This can, however, be traced back to any number of scenarios, such as coming home after a long time on the road to see a pet or simply travelling from city to city to play shows for fans who sing along and smile.   The way that you can interpret this how you wish and make that connection to what makes you smile is really quite wonderful.

A Short Walk to Pluto also does not have as much of a traditional pattern when considering this song structure.   It's not verse/chorus/verse so much as it seems to start off slower and softer and then build up louder and faster as the song goes on until the end.  I've also always felt like a good way to judge an artist (Though somewhat like judging a book by its cover) was whether or not their name would look on a t-shirt and A Short Walk to Pluto passes that test.   As you literally hear this song grows as it goes on, it might catch you a little bit off guard but it is almost certain that you will like it.