Goodness me, what absolute toss this album is. Just imagine everything that’s wrong with the ‘scene’ at the minute, roll it up into a band and you’ve got For All Those Sleeping. Having listened to ‘Cross Your Fingers’ sporadically over the past 10 days, I just don’t see what the A&R staff over at Fearless see and hear in this band. Sometimes I can listen to a record and think ‘yeah, I don’t like it, but it’s gonna sell’ and you can understand the label’s logic. But not only is this record just utterly dreadful, it’s a re-hashed sound of a re-hashed genre that’s way, way past its best. I mean, had this come out in the screamo summer of, what, four years ago, then it probably would have sold by the bucketload. But even the kids are bored of this by now aren’t they?
So where to start? It’s just cliched nonsense throughout, from the gutteral, misplaced screaming and shouting at every opportunity, to the breakdowns and detuned riffs which could have been stolen from any band within the genre. The choruses aren’t particularly catchy and only one or two are even remotely memorable (‘He’s Dead because Mommy Killed Him’ being one of the better tracks). The lyrics have to be heard to be believed – they’re just awful. From what sounds like “close your fingers and close your legs” in the ‘Outbreak of Heartache’ to various other references to hearts beating fast in their chests and blood and all kinds of other cliche-ridden crap. It’s like the band popped a load of GCSE poetry in a hat and plucked out the lines one by one to help construct their songs.
I could go on, but I think you can tell I really don’t like this record. Worst album of the year? It’s gotta be in with a shout, surely?