OK, the name is apalling. Let’s get that out of the way before we start; the band are immediately setting themselves up for a fall with such a horribly cliched ’emo’ moniker. I guess the fact that these guys have an average age of 16 may go some way to explaining that. But with a name like My American Heart you can ultimately predict how predictable this CD will be – and in that sense this EP will not disappoint. With soaring melodies and angst-ridden vocals, MAH do absolutely nothing new at all. But they do what they do quite well, and bearing in mind their youth, are possibly on their way to bigger and better things – just not with this record.
‘My American Heart‘ is an EP which doesn’t really do that much for me. I think I’m becoming immune to all this emo whining, unless it’s done very, very well. MAH have all the aspects needed from the emo checklist to suceed, which is why in five years time I guess they’ll be locked in to a major label and selling 200,000 albums. But there’s a real lack of vision and inventiveness here. ‘This Won’t Stop’ has layers of thick guitars and an emotional vocal melody, and while it is performed solidly and the sound is slick, it’s a case of the heard-it-all-befores. And so we go on, with tracks coming out of the stereo and sounding pleasant enough, but not grabbing my ears and sticking in my head all day like good records do.
If you like Spitalfield, Senses Fail and the other usual suspects, then you will probably like this band. But if, like me, the sound of yet another emo guitar band doing absolutely nothing new or original, no matter how talented they clearly are is a little too much to bear, give it a wide berth. Inevitably they will go on and sell a lot of records because they have a cute sound which will appeal to many. But safe is not always good – and in this case it’s rather dull.
www.myamericanheartrock.com
Paul