Arlen

There are no slow, easy-listening songs or melodic tracks on this alt/rock EP to mellow you out. This one’s all about pushing things to 11 and enjoying every second. This isn’t a quiet set of music to pass an idle evening. No, this is meant to be listening to while on a road trip with your buddies, running headlong through the city in search of adventure, or just dancing your ass of at home when no one’s watching (your roommates are gone for the night, right?).

“Tell Me” is my top pick of the pack crafted by this Lowell foursome. It’s extremely personal, and one that’s instantly relatable. Lines like “Quiet is too loud” remind me of many down times in my life.

The title of this EP, “Animal,” is so fitting. The heavy rock, slamming drums, and killer guitar work brings all the primal urges to the surface, but these are the good ones—the ones that crave adventure and excitement, the ones that should never be repressed. This album lets them all loose, and that’s something we should all try and do more often.

(Max Bowen) - The Noise

Hailing from Lowell Massachusetts, Arlen are one of the best bands I've seen live in quite sometime. Their new single "Mistakes" is an upbeat track full of angular guitars and indie rock hooks that bring to mind the likes of Naked Raygun, Sunny Day Real Estate and Cheap Trick. Vocalist Paul Kenny shows off a pretty expansive range and guitarist Breton Lefebvre provides an array of melodic leads while bassist Justin Shariat and drummer Andy Bechtol keep things on point as a precise and powerful rhythm section. It's moody it's melodic and like their live show it's charming and fun. Overall an impressive offering recommended for fans of passionate rock n roll.

(Dave Allison) - Custom Made Music

Halloween cover shows are a lot of work. A band busts its ass for weeks, sometimes months, to learn another band’s catalog, only to play those songs once or twice around or on the holiday before going back to their own material (and the daunting task of getting people out to shows without dangling the carrot of a familiar band we all grew up on). But throwing down a memorable Halloween tribute set as a familiar hero of yesteryear can spike interest in the band doing the covering, as we saw with Vary Lumar’s take on the Smashing Pumpkins at our Halloween party at Great Scott, and, down Harvard Avenue at the same time, Band Without Hands’ show as Nine Inch Nails at O’Brien’s Pub.

While those two shows were going down here in Boston, a young rock quartet called Arlen was tearing shit up at the Last Safe & Deposit Company in Lowell as Joy Division. People in our circles know how much we revere Joy Division, post-punk of that era, and pretty much anything associated with Tony Wilson and Factory Records. So it wasn’t long before we caught wind of Arlen’s performance, basically by people messaging us to check it out online.

So we hit the internet and watched a them play “No Love Lost” (excellent choice, that), “Digital,” and a few other classic Joy Division tracks via YouTube, and then we quickly got to thinking: “Well what the fuck does this band usually sound like?”

Turns out they’re pretty good.

A few weeks ago they released their latest single, “Gloria,” and it’s a fiery post-hardcore guitar-rock missile that rips for three minutes straight. Social media tells us it’s the first single from an upcoming EP called Animal, and you listen to it and download it via the Arlen Bandcamp, embedded for easy use down below.

Arlen are back playing their own songs this Thursday at Dudley’s in Lowell, and if you ask nicely we’re sure they’d dust off one of those old Joy Division covers.

Maybe.

(Michael Marotta) - Vanyaland

Arlen’s “Tell Me” and “Gloria” are off of their Animal EP. The song “Animal” itself is a melodramatic and introspective punch of power pop. Very accessible and fun listening. “Mistakes” is from Arlen’s next release and it has just the right dash of jangling/dazzling guitar work merging with a solid, welcoming bassline and intense vocal where the twain shall meet. 4:49

(Joe Viglione) - TMRZoo