When I first popped ‘Countless Hours Making Waves’ on the stereo, I thought I was listening to the new Funeral For A Friend single. Seriously. And yes, that does mean that Days In December are horribly generic. I mean even the name is horribly generic – it has a month and (almost) a day of the week! All we’d need is a season and we’d be in cliche-heaven. Oh, I do love to jest. Still, while Days In December do fall down and pray to the God of all things borrowed, they are actually pretty good and I’d be very interested to hear what they sound like live, rather than through the FFAF-influenced production machine. ‘Countless Hours Making Waves’ isn’t a bad little EP, but it is unadventurous and safe and all too predictable. If only it could shed it’s shell you’d have the real Days In December and an altogether new and more exciting prospect ready to come out and play.
Opener ‘Bright Lights‘ is very good for what it is, but what it is is merely a FFAF cast-off – all jaunty mesh caps (probably) and angular riffery with a strong vocal mixing from singing to a bit of ye olde shouting. It works well and sounds good – please don’t get me wrong – but I heard this all last summer. Maybe Taking Back Sunday weren’t being ironic with that ‘You’re So last Summer’ song after all? Maybe they’re prophets? Are they lost? Oh the puns are endless. Anyway, yeah, Days In December are good, but very unoriginal and each song on this EP screams the same thing in my eyes. The thing is, can I get away with writing the same thing over and over again in this review? The answer is no. To sum up, I’ll say that the last track, ‘Last Chance Before The Storm’ actually features Ryan from FFAF. I think that sums up my review better than anything else I’ve written.
This probably reads as being harsh, so if that’s the way you’ve taken it – sorry. If this record had come out this time last year I guarantee Days In December would have managed to ride the FFAF wave and made a huge splash with the glossy music magazines. Stardom may not have quite beckoned, but they would have moved up several notches on the musical ladder. Instead this record merely rides out the dregs of the waves. It’s more Cleethorpes beach than Huntington beach, California. Good at what they do Days In December may be, but not even Yoda-esque words of wisdom can save this from being predictable and generic.
www.daysindecember.com
Paul