I’m surprised it’s taken this long to have a wave of Dashboard clones clog up my CD player to be honest. Whereas most of the CDs we receive are of the heavier ’emo’ variety, this is a lot lighter in style. Greenlight… are a quartet from Rugby who sound just like Dashboard, except they’ve added a really odd keyboard/organ to the mix. And when I say odd, I really mean odd. Basically it takes away at least half a star from the score because it’s just plain out of place. It’s like the band wwere watching MTV2, saw Dashboard Unplugged and then followed it up by hearing The Killers on the radio and thought putting the two together would be a masterstroke. Sadly it’s not.
If you take the awful keys away from the mix, you’ve got a collection of three better-than-average songs. The structures are almost identical to those found in songs penned by Mr Carabba, but they’re executed perfectly well. The vocals are solid and the drums add an extra layer, so thumbs up all round. Of course the lack of originality will always hinder them, but Greenlight… can be proud of songs like ‘Throw Caution To The Wind’ because while they are totally inoffensive, they will help to get your foot tapping. However, all is ruined when the keyboards come in. Can keys be out of tune? These are. It’s like someone got a Casio for Christmas and just started hitting random notes – it’s not cool or clever.
Everyone knows keys will be cool this year, but throwing them in willy nilly isn’t the greatest idea in the world, especially when they ruin a trio of half-decent songs. Greenlight… clearly have potential, but they need to find their own sound a bit more. And that means doing more than sprinkling a few random notes over a Dashboard b-side.
www.purevolume.com/greenlight
Paul