Hello, everyone. So, I said a while back that I had one more album review before I mostly take a break from posting album reviews … well, this is that review. Even since then, I’ve already made a post with seven mini reviews, and at this point it’s hard for me to predict what I’ll be posting on this website over the next few months before my year-end lists … but for now, here’s an album review I wanted to post a while ago, but better late than never!

Anyway, this is a first for me.

Up until now, I have never reviewed music by anybody whom I know in real life. Spade are a duo consisting of Spade Hoile and Steve Wright, both of whom I used to be in a band with for a week or so when I was a lot younger.

Now, of course, this creates a challenge for me as a music reviewer … because I have to try to put aside the bias of knowing the artists. Of course there’s a part of me that says, ‘Simon, you have to like this.’

But I tried to put aside that bias, and on my first few listens, the album wasn’t really clicking for me that much … but after listening to it more, it’s grown on me a lot! And that’s when I asked both Steve and Spade whether or not they were okay with me reviewing it (it didn’t feel right to me to review an album by people I know in real life without asking first … as far as I know, it’s allowed, but personally, I wanted to ask). I told them it was going to be a positive review, because I’d listened to the album quite a bit at that point, and I already really liked it … but since then, this album has grown on me even more, to the point where it’s one of my favourite albums of 2022!

Now, I will say, as much as I tried to put aside the bias of knowing the artists, I can’t say with 100% certainty that it didn’t impact my opinion … but, hey, I can’t guarantee that I’d feel the same about any album if it weren’t for some factor unrelated to the album itself.

So, I’ll start by saying that this album does a great job of sounding like a conventional rock album, without feeling too generic or simplistic. It’s super creative with lots of details in the instrumentation, and uses interesting song structures.

This album reminds me quite a bit of Fear Of The Dawn by Jack White from earlier this year (which I reviewed in my post with ten mini reviews). But while I kind of like Fear Of The Dawn, I like this album way more, and I find it a lot more consistent.

Title the Document begins with the song, “Spokes”, and while I’m not a big fan of this track as an individual track, I think it’s a key track on the album as an opener, starting the album off on a more pessimistic note, but the lyrics seem to get more optimistic as the album goes on.

The second song on the album is “Game Point”, which features really interesting lyrics relating to pressure kids feel from their parents. The percussion is mixed super well, especially the crash cymbals with the guitar riff, which, by the way, is an awesome riff.

Despite “Game Point” being a fantastic song, right after that is a song that, in my opinion, is so much better than the first two, and that is “Home Is Where the Art Is”. This song features awesome guitar, both clean and distorted, and fantastic drumming. The drums are also incredibly well mixed, as is pretty much everything in this song. Overall, the production on this song is fantastic, and I love the progression of it, too! Steve sounds great vocally on this track, and I especially love the vocal harmonies between Steve and Spade when they sing the title line together! It’s songs like these that represent why I love music so much, not only because it kind of seems to be the point (look at the title of the song), but also because of just how much I love the way this song sounds! It’s one of my favourite songs of 2022 so far!

Speaking of great production and great vocal harmonies, “Derealization” is also really well mixed, and Steve and Spade sound great vocally here. The guitars sound fantastic, too, and I also love the piano outro!

“Out of Hand” is also incredibly well produced. I love how it changes between clean and distorted guitar, the drumming is great, and the timing of the instruments is great, too! There is something minor here that makes me like the song a bit less, which is the line in the chorus, ‘I needed to rhyme’, which makes this line rhyme with the last two. That line just doesn’t really work for me, but it doesn’t even come close to ruining the song.

“The Long Internal Struggle” starts off with some great guitar and drums, and I think the instrumentation that sounds kind of happy and kind of sad fits the lyrics well. I interpret this song to be about mental health struggles, but it’s got some optimism, too.

“My Dear Heart” has an absolutely incredible guitar riff that I can’t even put into words … you’ll just have to hear it to understand. The mixing is fantastic, too.

Even early on, before the album grew on me, I loved “Rest in Pieces”. The drumming on this song is fantastic, and it’s mixed super well, too. The song starts off with an awesome guitar riff … and I also love the mellow part with the clean guitars sounding amazing! And this song also has a great opening line, ‘Have you ever thought about perspective? I mean other than your own.’

Right after that is the song, “Utopia”, which I’m not a big fan of. While I feel like this song is pretty enjoyable, there’s not a lot about it that really makes it special to me personally. I like some elements of it, like the guitar solo (especially with that high-pitched sound in the background), and the guitars throughout this song sound great, but to me it kind of feels like it doesn’t go anywhere.

While “Massive Gap” isn’t one of my favourites on the album, that says more about how great the album is than anything. This is such a bizarre song that somehow works for me. The transition from the heavier verses into the chorus seem like something that on paper shouldn’t click for me … but for whatever reason, I think it works!

“This Is Truth”, while I may be misinterpreting it, seems to be from the perspective of a person who so badly wants to believe they’re right all the time that they’re never willing to see other perspectives. The drumming is fantastic, and I love that slide in the background.

Finally, the album closes with what I feel is one of the best songs here, “We Live Forever”. This ends the album on a mostly optimistic note, and just like most of the tracks here, the guitar and drums are mixed super well. I love the opening guitar riff, and I love how layered the instrumentation is, with nothing really feeling out of place!

Look, I reached out to Spade and Steve to make sure they were okay with me reviewing this album, and I told them it would be a positive review … even then, I didn’t know it would be this positive … the album grew on me even more, and at this point, I’m giving it a 9/10. I’d be shocked if this doesn’t make my year-end list of my favourite albums of 2022.

This is an amazing album, and if you’re into rock, I highly recommend that you give this album a listen!

Final Thoughts
Rating: 9/10
Favourite Tracks: “Game Point”, “Home Is Where the Art Is”, “Derealization”, “Out of Hand”, “The Long Internal Struggle”, “My Dear Heart”, “Rest in Pieces”, “This Is Truth”, “We Live Forever”
Least Favourite Tracks: “Spokes”, “Utopia”