United and Identified - Moments of Evolution

I remember hearing United and Identified for the first time when At The Border of the Line EP released. I always thought that the man behind the music had talent since I listened to the EP; I didn't think the production value was top notch by any means, but I always thought the guy had talent nonetheless. Plus, I remember being completely drawn into Mirrors of Denial despite the overused sample placed within, but I still liked the project.

Fast forward to near the end of 2014 (on the 25th of November, to be exact), and you'll find that United and Identified has released a new album titled Moments of Evolution. Available in both CD and digital format, this twelve track futurepop release intended to improve the project and push it further than ever.

And, well, just to get this out of the way real fast, two tracks from his 2012 EP appears on this album as well; one of which is my ever favorite Mirrors of Denial, and the second would be the alright X-Truth-E. But, moving on from the past, I get into the present.

Of course, there's the cinematic intro track titled Open Portal which got me interested in the album right away, with a slow synth build up into more electronic work. It was an odd build up for a futurepop album, but it was still nice. And then we get into an alright beat with Union Spark; nothing really great about it, nothing really stand out, and the vocals didn't really go hand in hand with the beat. They worked against one another rather than skipping merrily together through an open field.

But, that's okay, a rough start can always be fixed. Millennium does that well enough, but Saviour, as good as the beat was, falls back into that pit where the vocals were doing their own thing. I liked the fact that an eight minute instrumental was included on the track in the form of Choices Before Sunrise, but was disappointed in the fact that it didn't do much at all within that time frame. Not many real risks taken, not many avenues explored; it was too straight lined to hold my attention.

Stay away from One Last Goodbye at all costs, as I found the track completely forgettable and horrible. The vocals were way too overpowering and left the music far in the back. Borrowed Time gets into a good groove, with the vocals and beat (thankfully) fitting well enough into one another. Still nothing all too remarkable. And, well, the last three songs kind of follow the rest of the album, and my thoughts remain the same as in my previous sentence.

And, well, I come off this album let down. There wasn't all too much content that I found to be absolutely drawing to my ears. In fact, most of it was either skippable or just forgetful, and neither of those two options are ever good. I still will say that Mirrors of Denial remains my favorite track by this artist, and I am glad it appeared on the tracklist, as it brightened up things a little. If you're interested, go look at it, but I cannot publicly recommend this album to anyone. Dec 31 2014