Honorary Title Untouched & Intact CD

The Honorary Title: Jon Wiley, Jarrod Gorbel (guitar); Uri Sharlin (accordion); Tim Bright, Aaron Kamstra (bass guitar); Adam Boyd (drums).
To tide fans over until their major label debut Scream and Light Up the Sky came out in late August 2007, Brooklyn band the Honorary Title issued a four-song EP, Untouched & Intact, that contained two songs from the new record (the title track and "Along the Way") and two older B-sides ("Finally Understand," "7 Blocks"). There's definitely a difference between the two sets; the newer songs are poppier and fuller, focusing less on acoustic guitar and turning toward something that closer resembles the Format's work on Dog Problems or even Alkaline Trio singer Matt Skiba's side project Heavens. "Untouched and Intact" is actually a pretty great song, upbeat and clean but with a subtle darkness underneath, and "Along the Way," while more in the vaguely alt-country vein that the band has previously explored, sounds more mature than anything they've done before. Yes, the new music is more produced, more polished, but not in a way that takes from what the band has already established. Rather, it shows a development, a growth, that will hopefully lead the Honorary Title into the future while still keeping their fan base happy. ~ Marisa Brown