Watashi Wa "The Love of Life" CD
[Tooth & Nail]
Hmmm... I'm not sure about this. I sort of like it in some respects, but at the same time it's really not grabbing me. It's basically emo/indie rock that really closely borders being flat out poppy mainstream rock. It's not quite so candy-coated or oversimplified, but it's also not as catchy or energetic as the big moneymakers tend to be. It's sort of like the Foo Fighters or something maybe. But not quite. I don't know. The production is totally professional, the singer's got an excellent voice, and the music isn't bad. It's just not very memorable. The choruses tend to be pretty god damn good, replete with great vocal harmonies and plenty of energy, but then the rest of the songs' content sort of falls off. It's all pretty laidback, often relying on clean guitars and never using much distortion even when distortion is present, and with many songs topping four minutes the record tends to make one weary after about five tracks or so. As far as the production, I don't think I'd do anything to it really. Everything sounds slick. I think I'd like to hear more distortion on the guitars when they go that route, and perhaps it might be nice for the highs to be brighter and the lows to be thicker and more rounded out, but none of that would have a great impact on this material. And the layout is beautiful. I really, really like it. There are tons of awesome landscape photos with highly saturated colors and stylistic images of leafy, flowering plants against bold red circles. The text is minuscule and crammed together, but very crisp, and it creates a nice, compact visual appeal. Lyrically this stuff is too sappy for me, I just can't get into shit like: "I rhyme of time when all we knew was love with bread and wine friends by your side and time beneath your glove. You dream of time like that to always stay, but no soon day would ever stay, and tunes will always change..." What can I say? I actually thought I would like this, not to say that I dislike it, but something's definitely missing. One or two more albums from now I have a feeling this band could blow me out of the water (assuming they don't go in any lighter a direction), but this is just a good effort that doesn't do the trick. (6/10)
Running time - 49:07, Tracks: 12
[Notable tracks: All of Me, At its Finest]
Tooth & Nail Records - http://www.toothandnail.com

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