Review: Every Avenue - Shh. Just Go With It
Posted on 15 March 2008 | 2 Comments
This band should be huge. Seriously. Not with late-twentysomethings with a two year old kid like myself but (rather) with the teenage MTV crowd. Let me explain. First, Every Avenue sounds almost exactly like a cross between Fall Out Boy and Cartel. On their latest album Shh. Just Go With It, Every Avenue churns out catchy and mid-tempo peppy, poppy, punk-ish rock music that is safe and polished enough to have mainstream appeal. It is a little too vanilla for my tastes, but that is why it should be huge.
Therein lies the problem. Every Avenue is actually good. Despite the over-styled press photo you get when you open up the CD (which is evidently what kids look like these days), the band has talent. Maybe the studio has been kind to them, or maybe I’m a sucker for pseudo-pop-punk hooks, but the band is tight, on point, and ultra-melodic. The record’s thick and crystal-clear production make it sound like a million bucks; I mean, this is how big rock records are supposed to sound.
It is all fine and well as the album blazes along until the tenth song on the album, “Between You And I.” WTF is this? Why does every single pop-punk-rock band (EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM) feel that it is necessary to include a shitty piano ballad or whiny acoustic song near the end of their albums? Every single one is a waste of my time because they are never as good as the rest of the record (“Hey There Delilah” notwithstanding) and just add another layer of predictable suckage to the album.
All ranting aside (however) Shh. Just Go With It is a pretty solid debut album from Every Avenue and head and shoulders better than the EP I heard from them last year. Even if some of the lyrics and songs are a bit ordinary (or maybe I’m just too old and jaded), Every Avenue is better than so many other neo-pop-punk bands out there (see my review of The Frantic here).
MP3 | Every Avenue – Days Of The Old Shh. Just Go With It
MP3 | Every Avenue – Where Were You? Shh. Just Go With It
Filed Under: Album Reviews, Just Plain Rock, Pop
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