A year ago I reviewed Salisbury’s The City Stereo and mentioned how I thought they sounded like a more bland version of This Providence. They seem to have slightly re-invented themselves since, with a jazzy myspace page and a sound more akin to Simple Plan. This is pop-punk at it’s most clean-cut; some may argue it’s all pop and no punk but that’s not for me to call.
In any case, this record is slicker than a puddle of oil on the floor. The vocals are sweeter than a bag full of sugar, and while the genre has to be catchy and, to an extent, ‘clean’, this is way too over the top. If Pro-Tools (or equivalent) hasn’t been used on the recording of this record then I’ll eat a hat. It’s just too slick and too clean for my liking and I actually felt a bit sick by the end. It’s not that the songs are bad because they’re not, they’re just over-cooked in the pop-punk bakery. ‘The Rapture’, for instance, has everything in the right place but it just doesn’t sit that well with me. I must be getting old – this isn’t bad by any means, but it just needs to be toned down a little bit if they’re going to gain any long-lasting credibility.