Create To Inspire have been rapidly building momentum over the past couple of years, helped by a relentless touring schedule that’s seen them play across Europe as well as a recent headline run across the UK. With the backing of Basick Records, the Essex-based quintet follow their previous two EPs with debut album ‘Sickness’.
Throughout the album’s ten tracks you get exactly what you’d expect from pop-driven post-hardcore: tight instrumentation, mid-tempo rhythms, simple song structures and vocals that switch between singing and screaming, all helped by Romesh Dodangoda’s slick production. Create To Inspire fit the brief for the genre, but while they might tick all the boxes, they don’t do anything to step outside of them.
Vocally, Sean Midson has a good tone and during the clean passages his voice is pleasant, but not particularly distinctive. Midson’s melodies aren’t memorable enough to make them catchy or stand out and you don’t find yourself humming any of them once the record closes. His screams, while enough to add some variation, don’t have the depth or impact needed to add real aggression to the music and thus fall a little short.
Instrumentally, the drums maintain a consistent, mid-tempo throughout and the guitars provide solid, chunky chords to back up the vocals. They’re enough to do what they need, but nothing stands out to give any of the songs any moments of distinction. Every song on ‘Sickness’ is performed to a high standard and the production gives the whole thing a polished finish, but this is a saturated genre with several bands playing the same style in the same way. Create To Inspire need to do exactly what their band name suggests to rise above their peers and make themselves stand out.
‘Adjust’ suggests that the band has the potential to transform their sound into something more memorable. It has more impact and momentum than the rest of the album and if they can bring more of this spark to the rest of their songwriting it will set them in good stead for the future. The diagnosis for ‘Sickness’ isn’t anything exotic or life threatening, but rather a common cold that has some very recognisable symptoms and once you get through it, you’re not likely to remember much about it.
MARK JOHNSON