This Was Built to Make You Dance

AMG Review of This Was Built to Make You Dance

John D. Luerssen
All Music Guide

On their debut long-player, Asheville, NC's Secret Lives of the Freemasons come off like an amalgam of emo champs Senses Fail and post-hardcore front-runners Glassjaw. Lead vocalist Brien Worsham is to credit (or blame, depending how you look at it) for the latter, paying tribute to that outfit's singer, Daryl Palumbo, most obviously on the soaring, hook-laden "It Only Took a Whimper" and the disc's most inventive moment, "Glazed Over Eyes Never Lie." Sporting a three-guitar attack and a ferocious asset in drummer Travis Moss, This Was Built to Make You Dance sounds well plotted, but astoundingly, it was realized in a mere four days. While extremities like the screamo assault "Make Like a Door and Shut Up" and the raw, relentless "And Then a Hurricane" find Worsham cutting his own rug, this disc -- despite its title -- isn't for dancing. But as far as records of this ilk go, This Was Built to Make You Dance does warrant its share of attention and won't be a secret forever.