Reviews

Alternative rock has assumed a bizzare state lately. It's taken a few elements of glam fashion along with pop punk energy, higher pitched vocals and, in some cases, an altogether lack of originality. Alternative has, in some ways, found it's way into punk rock oddly enough, and the results are usually disastrous. Enter National Product with their new album, Luna.

The album kicks off well enough with "By All Means," an energy packed track displaying strong vocal ability with energetic guitars and slight hope for percussive diversity throughout the album (although not displayed in the track itself). Before long, the song takes a bizarre twist with an electronic drum and guitar bridge built in. To someone who's heard a lot of albums in a similar vein, this really expresses a sign of creative laziness. Neat post-production effects are all good and well if you're a member of Daft Punk but I'm afraid this is all too overused.

This lack of creativity in the first track would provide an omen of things to come later in the album. The disappointing lack of percussive creativity was definitely a leading factor in the generic nature of the album, as a growing trend in unoriginal percussion continues. The guitars had the same thriving dramatics throughout as well, with some questionable choices in vocal melody at several points in the album.

One of the contributing factors to National Product being an example of what makes modern "emo" generic would have to be the overall cheese factor of their lyrics. From "Swear on this knife/That you never loved me" to "As we walk into the night/And we cry one last time," I couldn't stand another cliché. It takes the cheesy fun out of the Hallmark cruddy mid-to-late nineties emo lyrics I love so much.

On a lighter note, the songs "By All Means" and "Medicated" are probably the two high points of the album. This provides some convenience in that one can hear most of what the album has to offer within the first three tracks, leaving one plenty of time to do what else? Surf Myspace! National Product's Myspace account comes complete with an eleven page picture collection, with Photoshopped to shit pictures of their fans with "NP" scrawled on their hands, an emo picture from Tuscon with some twelve year old boys/girls (I didn't mean "boys and girls," I really intended to say "boys/girls") and pictures with mosh champion (I'm kidding) Jefree Star!

All teasing aside, National Product's music has its place, but probably not with the well rounded music listener. Despite a few tracks showing some potential, the overall makeup of the album doesn't impress me. Hopefully these guys take the talent and potential made evident in a few of these tracks and run with it, but for now, two stars.