Kicking Howard "The Auburn" CD
[Gods Child]
Wow, I'm really not feeling most of this. It's a mix of poppy emo and alternative rock or something, some of which totally sounds pretty weak and radio-ish, and not in a really catchy way, just in sort of a half-assed and generic way. I won't lie, I love some of this genre, and technically I should like this, but something about it comes off as flat. It's strange. I know the recording is a little thin. It sounds okay but needs more of a smoothly rounded punch. And the writing's not awful, it just doesn't hit me. The singing's okay but would maybe be better suited for more of a rock band? I don't know, there aren't many prominent vocal harmonies and the singing isn't all that emotional in my opinion. And the songs could be more powerful. I think the guitar tone does have an effect on that though, because it's awfully heavy on the midrange and treble, so a lot of the chords sort of break apart. There are also some ridiculous little keyboard parts that are completely generic and serve no purpose at all, sounding like a random afterthought more than anything. Admittedly "Sugarcoat it All So I Will Never Know", coincidentally the shortest track, is a little more energetic and memorable, but that's the only song I really start to like on the entire EP. "Hypocrisy Kills" uses some acoustic guitars and comes off as more of a ballad and surprisingly works a little better than most of the more rocked out tracks, but something's still missing. For some reason there's a few minutes of silence before the second to last track, even though the bonus track follows it. Granted the second to last track, "Dear Santa, Please Help Me Find a Girl", is stupid as hell, but... whatever. If the bonus track is listed on the cover there's no real point in "hiding" it after silence anyway. The layout at least looks good, with a strict color palette of light blue, orange, white, and dark green, and some high contrast imagery of birds and such. The lyrics are all personal and include some sarcastic titles, with one more serious track lashing out at sexual abuse, but really the content does little for me, and some of the lines are really cheesy, though most are tolerable to a degree. It's just nothing all that creative, you know? I don't know. This band has potential but right now they're in this weird limbo that's just not clicking at all. Sorry. (5/10)
Running time - 25:00 (approximately), Tracks: 6
[Notable tracks: Sugarcoat it All So I Will Never Know]
Gods Child Music - http://www.godschild.com.hk

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