This is some solid emo/indie rock from Indiana that suffers from a few minor setbacks, but has the potential to be really awesome. I like the fact that they use a heavier guitar tone than a lot of these bands tend to go with these days. The vocals are straightforward singing, but the singer has a really unique voice... it's sort of high-pitched, but not in an annoying way. I don't know. They almost never do vocal harmonies though, and that's one of the setbacks I was talking about earlier. The music is pretty energetic and catchy, but the singing sort of lacks that energy because, even though it's good, it needs something more to really place some emphasis there. "Up in Here" is really catchy, that's what I'm talking about... short, to the point, perfect songwriting right there. There's an unlisted song at the end of the disc that's awesome too, and I assume it's a cover, but I'm not sure of what. It's a little more upbeat and has a pop punk sort of vibe going on. I don't know, whatever it is it's cool. The recording is pretty good. I think if it had that huge, perfect sound the band would benefit quite a bit, but it sounds very nice as is. The drums are totally natural and hugely resonant, the guitars sound really good, and the vocals are close to being right on. The bass can be hard to hear sometimes, but it barely makes a difference since the drums hold things down so well. The layout has a weird sort of military theme, as the booklet appears "wrapped" in the fabric of a medic's bag or something, and then inside the lyrics are laid over a large map, with an excerpt from some sort of military comic strip off to the side. I don't know about the lyrics, they're almost too direct, and that can be a bother: "I swear if I hear another Dave Matthews song, I'm gonna tear out these speakers, I may not be the man for the job, It could be you, I swear if I see another Britney Spears, I'm gonna burn down every house I ever built, I may not be the man for the job, It could be you, You never know." I have no appreciation for that at all. Sure, I hate Dave Matthews and Britney Spears, but those are stupid lyrics no matter how you look at it. Aside from the crappy lyrics, this CD is really good. I'd be able to ignore the lyrics if the songwriting was consistently powerful and the recording was barely more polished. But this is good work.
[Skeptic]
Running time - 40:00 (approximately), Tracks: 13
[Notable tracks: Joanna, Up in Here, the unlisted track]
Skeptic Productions - http://www.harakiri666.com/skeptic/
