Critic's Review
Peter J. D'Angelo, All Music Guide
This is where it started getting serious. The three songs released by the Promise Ring on this early EP set the framework for expectations the band was more than ready to live up to. On the heels of their first 7," Falsetto Keeps Time featured three more songs written by the group during their first year of existence. The opening glory of "A Picture Postcard" is still one of the most beautiful things the group has ever created. Drifting through a breezy single note melody and into a pounding emotional finale, the song stands as the high benchmark that the band was able to rise to on a surprising number of future occasions. Alongside it are the stop and start heavy breaks of "Saturday" and the dreamy, lilting "Scenes From a Parisian Life." This was the record where the Promise Ring exposed both their vulnerability and their strength, and it stands as one of the more memorable building blocks of the ever-expanding "emo" movement that it helped to usher in. The tracks were later re-released on the collection The Horse Latitudes, but as far as historical significance goes, Falsetto Keeps Time marks the moment where the group realized their vision and ran with it.
