Reviews

For this band’s debut full length, they cleaned up a bit.  The album overall has a cleaner sound than the past EP, Whatever I Say Is Royal Ocean.  The production is much more meticulous this time around, which makes me believe that they spent more time recording this record than the last one.  This all makes sense as this was their first CD in which Rise was a part of the production.  I had high hopes for this record after hearing the EP and enjoying the band’s sound.  The last album had some good songs on it and showed a fair amount of talent, but you could tell that the band had more potential than just what was on the EP.
 
The album starts off with the “Untitled” intro, which leads into the most powerful song on the record, “And I Told Them I Invented Times New Roman.”  This song is the obvious best song on the album and helps to start the record off very well.  The song bursts in at the start, catching the listener off guard, and then continues to bring the intensity throughout.  The highlight of the song would be the vocals, namely the singing; there just isn’t a dull moment for the singer.  The song ends with the singing and screaming unified together climaxing in a breakdown.  The singing accompanies the guitar melody before the breakdown with “I don't believe the lies, I don't believe the lies, I’ll die for you/I don't believe the lies, I don't believe the lies, it’s staged for you.”  Once the breakdown hits, the screamer takes the lead; “Left at my feet rests the soul of my brother/ Vengeance will fall for the deeds of another.”  It is one of those songs you can listen to over and over again.  Unfortunately, the CD doesn’t get much better from there.
 
The next two tracks, “It’s Safe to Say You Dig the Back Seat” and “Strawberry Andre,” are two fairly good songs.  “Strawberry Andre” is one of my two favorite songs on the record due to the sung chorus containing the lyrics, “I fear I can't believe it’s you. I fear,” while the screamer wails underneath with “Nice tie, meet my concubine/She's not drunk it’s enthusiasm/Lipstick, we painted faces, of people with no regrets.”
 
“Lemon Meringue Tie” and “The Backwards Pumpkin Song” are the next two tracks.  Both are solid tracks but nothing really stands out, they’re just mediocre songs, good but not great.  The two tracks following contain another highlight on the album, “Antlion,” followed by the worst song on the album, “Turn off the Lights I’m Watching Back to the Future.”  “Antlion” features another catchy chorus, this time at the beginning and end of the song: “Something's wrong, Something's wrong/There's a bomb in my face, decorated in white lace/Something's wrong, Something's wrong/When people they look at you, Do you think, do you think of food?”  The chorus features the singing and screaming back-to-back, coming of as a well-played call and response.  “Turn off the Lights I’m Watching Back to the Future” just doesn’t make sense to me; nothing in it seems to connect.  The only part of this song I enjoyed was the beginning intro, before the screaming.
 
The next song, “Open Your Eyes and Look North,” is a fairly good song. It’s solid throughout and really picks it up in the last minute.  “Surprise! I’m from Cuba, Everyone Has One Brain” is another song where things sometimes don’t make sense musically and vocally.  The song has some good parts but these are overshadowed by other, weaker parts, which are sporadic and poorly utilized.  It also features one of the longest fades ever at the end of a song, not to mention the bit of ambience at the finale.  The ambience leads into “12 Hours, 630 Miles,” which is a great, moody acoustic song, though it is a bit short and could maybe be longer.
 
Overall the record has high points and low points, but the main thing that is lacking in the album is diversity, not only in the songs, but also a bit lyrically as well.  Some of the tracks lose points just because they sound like a not so great version of a song already on the record. The songs can also be hard to tell apart sometimes.  My personal favorite songs are “Strawberry Andre” and “Antlion”.  And the last track, “12 Hours, 630 Miles,” is a great acoustic song.  Some of the songs seem a bit longer than they need to be as well; my two favorite songs are the two shortest songs on the record excluding the intro and the outro acoustic song.  The whole album clocks in at forty minutes, but after listening to it, it seems more like fifty or sixty minutes.  This gives the impression that the album seems dragged out and at times, it’s not hard to get distracted and stop listening altogether.  The band shows potential once again, but this is definitely not their best release.  I also was not a big fan of the screamer in the last record, but it wasn’t as big of a deal as it is in this record.  The screamer has a tough stage to fill performing opposite the very talented singer, Johnny Craig.  The screams just come off too rushed overall and they almost seem like back-up vocals done by someone playing an instrument in the band, instead of another lead singer.  This is a solid release, but I was hoping for more.  My rating is a bit on the generous side due to the fact that I’m a fan.