Reviews

I have a soft spot for emo-tinged rock music with vocal duties shared between a guy and a girl. So, with this in mind, Victory’s latest foray into this genre arrived at my door in Chicago act 1997. I was immediately skeptical of this release seeing as that both guy/girl/emo bands on Victory’s roster - Straylight Run and The Forecast - have left or are in the process of leaving the label. I was right to be worried; 1997 play like a combination of those bands without any of the songwriting skills or uniqueness that the aforementioned acts possess.
 
1997’s debut release, …a better view of the rising moon, is a pretty straightforward affair full of the emotive voices of musical youngins coupled with jangley guitars and the occasional interesting production quirk. I will give the band and Victory one thing, they chose the right song for the first single in the track “Garden of Evil.” This song is easily the best on the record and shows 1997 achieving the kind of cute, cozy, and quaint vibe that they fail to muster on the rest of the release. If this was the only song I ever heard by 1997, I would think that they were pretty damn good. But, unfortunately, there are eleven other tracks on …a better view… and none of them live up to the standard that “Garden of Evil” sets.
 
What really hurts this release are the lyrics and the overuse of keyboards. Vocalist and keyboardist Kerri Mack has a decent voice, though she lacks the raw power of Rainer Maria’s Caithlin de Marrais and the range of The Forecast’s Shannon Burns. Boy singer Kevin Thomas is also capable enough but he sounds like every other emotional dude that feels like exorcising his girl troubles with some guitars. But really, this duo falls apart when it comes to the lyrics. It can be difficult to be sincere with this type of music and few bands have pulled it off…The Anniversary and Rainer both immediately come to mind. There are a lot of references to generic “boys” and “girls,” nights spent drinking and looking at stars, parental issues, and far too much use of the word “poetry.”  Ohh yeah, and there’s talk of “sending letters” and “singing along to the radio,” which, let’s face it, absolutely no one does anymore. It’s these types of cliché romanticism that ruin the record and make me cringe.
 
As I mentioned, there is also far too much keyboard. It’s as if the band and producer Cameron Webb decided to just use the synthesized sounds they could wrangle from Mack’s keys instead of attempting to actually find friends who could play instruments. If they had, the release may have sounded a bit more natural and interesting. All of this combines to generate an entirely forgettable debut record. Maybe 1997 will mature a bit down the road and develop some songwriting skills but right now, they’re nowhere near the quality of their Victory predecessors.