If I received a penny for every time I had heard the phrase Story of the Used, I'd have a jar full of copper coins. Listening to 'Page Avenue', it's not difficult to see why comparisons have been made to Bert and his merry men. Although both have been produced by Goldfinger mainman John Feldmann, Story of the Year have such vocal similarities it's hard to ignore the comparisons with their peers. I say vocal comparisons, but I mean on a watered down scale. Y'see SOTY are another of those conveyor belt bands that came straight from the factory; complete with studded belts, tattoos, tight black shirts and screaming aplenty.
That's not to say 'Page Avenue' is a horrific abomination of an album, because it's not. Infact if this would have come three years ago, and not on the back of other bands successes, then I would probably have heralded this as a great album. But sadly it has all been done before, and, in The Used's case, done far better. It's admittedly very safe, hardly straying away from the cliched emo textbook, but there are songs here which demand repeated listens. 'And The Hero Will Drown' is catchy-as-fuck and will appeal to the most hardened of Linkin Park fans, while 'Until The Day I Die' is more pop than punk. Even so, both have hooks big enough to land a whale. Ultimately they are pop songs though and SOTY could easily bother the charts in the same way Good Charlotte have.
'Anthem of our Dying Day' and 'Divide And Conquer' hit hard at times, but everything is just too clean, too careful and too made-for-radio for my liking. I'm a big fan of melodic music - pretty much anything with a hook I can listen to - and I'm sure SOTY will get some mileage in the car stereo this summer. But if you take this for anything less than pop music with harsher guitars, you're seriously deluding yourself. Story of the Year are so inoffensive they make Steps look like child killers. There's nothing to get excited about, even though the user comments following this review will no doubt make ridiculous comments that descend into farce.
If you love squeaky-clean radio friendly mainstream emo music, then Story of the Year will float your boat. Some of the songs on offer have the ability to remain firmly in your cranium, but on the whole this is watered down shit for the MTV generation. When the bosses at Maverick first heard these demos, I'm sure you could just hear the cash registers ringing. This band may be great live but on record it's just more of the same. And it's more of the same music that is becoming increasingly annoying.
www.storyoftheyear.net
Maverick
Paul
