Tripped and Falling is a 5-piece band hailing from Trinidad and Tobago. Yes, that Trinidad and Tobago. The one in the West Indies. No, I didn’t realise emo/pop-punk had spread that far either, but apparently it has. This record ended up on my desk in just a white slip case and to be honest I didn’t expect a great deal…sometimes you get a feeling immediately on a record and with this one I just didn’t expect the ‘business’. So I was gobsmacked when I heard the first of the 10 songs here because it’s an absolute blinder.
Mixing early The Starting Line with bands like Cartel, some of the songs here drive with some fantatsic vocal melodies and choruses the size of a small West Indian island. However, and it’s a big however, of the 10 songs on offer at least 4 are filler, leaving an album that would definitely have been better suited to an EP. Vocalist Chad has a very melodic voice, so it doesn’t take much for him to make an impact, but I feel there are tracks here that are beyond saving – just very generic riffs and lyrics.
That’s not to say that Tripped and Falling are bad, because they’re not. I just feel that they’d be far better served cutting some of the filler back on this album and making it six killer efforts. Even then, while it may not be the most origianl stuff in the world, there would be enough hooks to have me singing along for ages. It’s not Brian Lara, but I guess the Windies can still be proud of these boys.
www.trippedandfalling.com
paul