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. It's 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. 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?
