Radio-ready emo through and through with this one. That's not necessarily a bad thing, though. I don't give a fuck. I'm a huge sucker for a catchy song, and I love this stuff when it's done right. This one's a little rough around the edges, and the vocals are definitely teetering very close to the edge as far as how much nasally whininess I can tolerate, but the songwriting is generally really good. They've got fairly energetic tempos happening, lots of thick melodic chord progressions layered with additional guitar lines, plenty of vocal harmonies and memorable choruses, the works. Sometimes it's a little heavier than most of this stuff, in a few areas the speedier moments hint at pop-punk, and so on. Is it generic? Yes, yes it is. There's no denying that. There's nothing original about this at all, but... at the same time... it's not super stripped down and basic, you know? Simple? Yeah, sort of, but there's enough happening to give it some bulk as far as the playing and recording go. I think the sound needs minor tweaking, but it gets them by just fine. The drums are subtly distant, and the guitars and vocals could both be slightly smoother or more well rounded, but the bass plays a solid role and the end result is clear and punchy enough to get the job done, so I'm not too concerned there. A slick major label recording budget would probably be able to gloss over the aspects of the singing that kind of get to me, but hell... a million bucks could make almost anything sound better, so these kids are doing fine considering they're the fifth release on a label that I've never even heard of. Some of the lead lines in tracks like "Sincerely Yours" and "Rainy Day Victory" are a little choppy, which is something that needs to be worked out performance-wise since some of those songs are actually among the finer moments, but thankfully they inch by regardless. I'm not into the layout, though. It's done in a kind of generic collage of postcards and photographs and stuff, but the color scheme is weak and most of the typefaces don't look right in this context (you know, those fake handwriting fonts that don't look at all like actual handwritten text). It's all a little jumbled and messy overall. The lyrics are personal and deal with relationships and all that stuff in an almost painfully dramatic and typical manner that doesn't strike me in the least. But almost all of this kind of stuff falls into that trap, so whatever. I'm not totally taken by this record, but they're on the way, so I bet the next one will totally win me over. Time will tell, but I'm hoping for the best.
[Search and Rescue]
Running time - 33:31, Tracks: 10
[Notable tracks: Routine Summer, Rainy Day Victory, For What it's Worth]
Search and Rescue Records - http://www.searchandrescuerecords.com
