Blueprint For The Black Market,
AnberlinTo tell the truth I was quite looking forward to this release as, in my experience, Tooth and Nail Records very rarely do wrong. With comparisons to the likes of The Juliana Theory too, my hopes for Anberlin were reasonably high. Playing a driving melodic rock sound with plenty of melodic hooks, there’s certainly enough here to get the band mainstream appeal. Unfortunately the saccharine sweet edges eat away at the songs a little too much, decaying the overall feel.
‘Blueprint For The Black Market’ is a decent stab at rifftastic TJT-esque ‘emo’ – used of course in its blandest form, of course – with polished production, squeaky-clean guitars and more melodies than your average pop-punk record. Opener ‘Readyfuels’ sets the tone, with a sound more clean-cut than the Olsen twins. ‘A one-off’ you think – sadly not. ‘Foreign Language’ is just as inoffensive, aimed squarely at radio airplay. And to be fair it is better than a lot of the guff blasting from your stereo, but it’s just so fake sounding it becomes annoying and bland.
This is a theme that recurs far too often for my liking. There are parts of the record that sound great, but ultimately are way over-produced (‘Cold War Transmissions’) or others that seem far too contrived (‘Glass To The Arson’). None of the songs are particularly bad, after all there are enough singalong hooks to keep most people interested for a few spins, but in terms of lasting appeal there’s nothing to hook you in long-term. In places Anberlin come over like Nickelback; incidentally I played a number of tracks to my dad (who is 50) and he said he could listen to this in the car. That kinda makes my point for me.
Anberlin have made a really safe record that could easily blow-up big. However, it’s so offensively inoffensive and safe, something which really ruins any long-term appeal. Fans of the melodic rock genre may well get a kick out of this, but it’s destined to head for the shelf where it will almost certainly gather dust.
www.anberlin.com
Tooth and Nail Records
Paul
