Rating: 1 Pulse
Unfortunately, I paid $6 for this CD because I lost the original copy given to me for review. I did not lose it on purpose, but it would have made sense if I did. This CD fails to deliver in more ways than one.
One of the major problems with any compilation is finding music that fits naturally together. Fortunately, this compilation does not seem to have that problem. Unfortunately, the way they achieved this cohesiveness was by grouping bad songs and recordings with other bad songs and recordings.
Two standouts from an otherwise unnoteworthy group of songs were Ghostfinger’s “Ocean,” and The States’ “Till Morning Comes.”
“Ocean” had a good mellow texture and strong lyrics that made me feel very heavy. The lyrics were smoothly delivered in harmonies that were not exactly the most perfect, but definitely carried an interesting melody and seemed to strike an emotional (not to be confused with emo) chord in my body.
It took a while to figure out which songs I actually liked, though, due to tracks like the next song, Maniac McGee’s “Mt. Fuji,” which could be labeled as emo due to its whiny indefinable melodies and overall bad sound.
The States’ “Till Morning Comes,” was clearly the best track on the album. It came at you hard and smooth with unique melodies, strong performances, all-around great hooks in both melody and words and a “vintage late ’90s early 2000s sound.” The recording style was very aggressive and appropriate for the song. Also, the vocals were excellently and convincingly delivered.
The States’ other track on the album, “Red Lion,” was fairly interesting, but lacked the clarity of “Till Morning Comes.”
Overall, the album left a very bad taste in my mouth due to song after song that seem to have that way too trendy “buildup, blow your wad, and buildup again” type of emoish sound.
Ultimately, the creators of these songs are trying hard to avoid alienation and rejection. They are afraid to show true emotion and instead write within a genre that’s unfortunately called emo. It’s an easy way out of having to be creative, and a bad way to make music.
