I always listening to records with limited expectations and being really surprised when something good comes along. The Dangerous Summer‘s previous EP was good but far from great – I remember writing that they came across like a sub-par All Time Low yet I remember they had some solid, if unspectacular, songs. This full length album, the band’s first, is much, much better. It reminds me a little of Divit and No Motiv, albeit slightly more pop-focussed. ‘Reach for the Sun’ is a damn fine record, make no mistake.
The band list Jimmy Eat World, The Starting Line, Taking Back Sunday, The Maine and We The Kings as influences and that’s actually not a bad yardstick to measure this record against. It’s poppy and melodic – often very catchy as ‘Weathered’ and ‘The Permanent Rain’ can testify – but there are catchy riffs and a driving guitar tone which sets this apart from the pop-punk bands that are doing good things right now. Vocally there’s a touch of the Kenny Vasoli’s about this record which I didn’t notice first time round and, if you like TSL, you’ll certainly enjoy this album.
With albums like this they often suffer from a bad dose of the ‘some killer, lots of filler’ disease. Thankfully ‘Reach for the Sun’ is very consistent and while songs do sound a bit similar at times, they’re all catchy enough and of a high enough quality to let that pass. There’s the odd poorer song – ‘Northern Lights‘ is a bit of a plodder – but they are in the minority. Overall this is a good, solid summer record and a vastly underrated one at that.