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In Recovery Inspection 12 |
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Upon impact you've sworn you've heard these guys before. Maybe not them directly but it's a very familiar Hard-edged Rock sound with Pop harmonies and top 40 seasonings… or polished Punk if ya wanna really get technical, Green Day bashers! There's some of this and some of that, yep, maybe a Green Day attitude with the bright vocal harmonies of a Bad Religion… And wasn't there a character named Inspector 12… like from some diaper commercial or something? Well anyway, now there's an Inspector 12, four of them to be precise and they do the Rock & Roll thing. "Secure" shoots out the starting gate with obvious chart-topping intentions, very high strung though listener friendly, and it'll make program directors happy because its accessible but not your average everyday Post-Grunge bloat with big choral recesses. "Sweet Sixteen's…" rather unmemorable, but "Red Letter Day" could easily be the pick hit of the bunch, with a few far flung riffs, broken beats, minor-key friendly and symptomatically catchy. We're definitely movin' on a youth movement here, spurts of serious intonations seem to edge their way into the otherwise loosely-hung courtyard humor-you see, the four dudes that make up the band list themselves as recovering addicts, so it's very necessary to place themselves in a far away place, a step outside reality and most of this is definitely close to there… or something like that. They can play and write glass half full Pop songs with a sharp edge and catchy hook for sure, and there is a quality to their style that lends itself to the more established veteran acts, but I'm just not sure there's enough here that'll grab the listener for much longer than half an album's worth-I mean, after "Great Scott" where they come out with a brass section and cello, well damn how ya gonna beat that? Released by Honest Don's Records Review by Vinnie Apicella
[va85@columbia.edu] |