Album review: Haunted Mouths – A Collection Of Greetings

With emo’s nostalgic revival in full swing, heaps of bands from the ’00s and early 2010s boom are regrouping for new music, tours and festival appearances. Amidst all this yearning for Warped Tour summers gone by, Sleeping With Sirens frontman Kellin Quinn has taken a different route to many of his peers by pursuing a project focused on something completely new, rather than looking to past glories. Said endeavour, Haunted Mouths, is a lo-fi indie-pop project written and recorded with Copeland’s Aaron Marsh, and it’s without doubt a far cry from his day job.

While the laid-back bedroom-pop vibes of opener Further Til We Disappear are very different from Sleeping With Sirens’ frenetic emo fare, what is familiar from the outset is Kellin’s unmistakeable voice, which, as we’ve come to expect, packs plenty of emotion and charisma, and pairs pretty well with Haunted Mouths’ more serene sonic landscape. The best moments come when Kellin keeps things simple, like on the urgent, upbeat indie-pop of So Peculiar and the atmospheric impact of You Built This. There’s also a surprising saxophone solo on Becoming Nameless, which the song just about gets away with.

That said, a few moments here feel a little too experimental and directionless, particularly Tunnel Vision and Searching For A Fire. Kellin’s vocal performance on the latter is brilliant, with his melodies giving the track a real sense of innocence, but the music behind it lacks the same sense of purpose.

Still, there’s lots to satisfy on this record, whether you’re a Kellin fan or someone who enjoys alternative music in its quieter forms. A Collection Of Greetings is a solid introduction to this celebrated vocalist’s new venture.

Verdict: 3/5

For fans of: HalfNoise, Hayley Williams, Sleeping With Sirens

A Collection Of Greetings is out now via Dreamer