Boy Sets Fire
The Misery Index: Notes From The Plague Years

THE REVIEW

Carefree browsing on DeBaser, reading here and there mindless reviews of Duncan James and Lee Ryan and excellent ones of Type O Negative, when a gray and dark thought invades my mind: "but on this f***ing site, are there the great Boy Sets Fire?"...

Like the band that invented emotional hardcore...
With this question tormenting my brain, I rush swiftly like a feline to artist search, hopefully enter the name and... there's nothing. Nothing. Nada. Damn! I don't give up and tell myself
"my favorite site doesn't have reviews of a stellar band? Fine, I'll take care of it!"

I listen very attentively to the CD whose title is a whole program: "The Misery Index: Notes From The Plague Years". A melancholic voice of the ever-brilliant Nathan Gray opens the album over an acoustic guitar. The track in question is "Walk Astray". It all lasts about a minute and a half, then the following three minutes and ten are pure high-quality emocore. Next is the big single "Requiem" in classic BoySetsFire-style. "Final-Communiqué" and "So Long... And Thanks For The Crutches" are two punches in the teeth. The title-track and "Empire" are more calm and relaxed. Interesting, however, are the experiments with strings in the beautiful, perhaps the best of the batch, "Falling Out Theme". "Deja-Coup" veers a lot towards ska-core, just like the aforementioned "So Long... And Thanks For The Crutches" which has a very original piano intro. Moving is "With Cold Eyes".

Finally, taking a look at the lyrics, we can perceive that they are always balancing between the political and the inner malaise. Boy Sets Fire are a guarantee for anyone, probably someone expected something better from this band but it's undeniable their courage to experiment and the desire to do something original yet always of the highest level. At last, even DeBaser can boast a review of Boy Sets Fire. Everyone can sleep more peacefully now.