Don’t get me wrong, when it’s done right I love the type of music A Thorn For Every Heart churn out. Bands like Taking Back Sunday and The Used released seminal first albums six or seven years ago that influenced by musical tastes and moved me on to a number of other bands. They also influenced countless other groups – like ATFEH – who started their own bands and play their own version of that same type of music.
The thing is, there becomes a point when you have to say ‘enough is enough’ and just nuke all bands that sound exactly the same as those other groups five, six and even seven years ago. And A Thorn For Every Heart should hope their beating heart is pierced hard enough so they bleed to death, because ‘It’s Hard To Move You’ is absolutely dreadful generic emo-by-numbers drivel, complete with cringeworthy lyrics, obvious screams and your typical ‘let’s wear black and combover our hair’ album cover. There’s nothing at all here which hasn’t been heard a million times before – and done better. The worst part is this is released by a major, surely dredging the barrel and trying to scrape the last few $$$ from a musical genre dying on its arse.
“We are worthless, we are lost” the band sing at one point. How very apt.