The Spill Canvas – No Really, I’m Fine
October 18, 2007
- Reckless Abandonment **
- All Over You **
- Battles
- Truth, The
- Saved**
- Hush hush
- Low Fidelity
- Connect the Dots **
- Bleed, Everyone’s Doing It
- Appreciation And the Bomb **
- One Thing is For Sure **
- Lullaby **
**Clear Favorites
This album is a clear advancement from the first two (that I’ve heard. I need to get my hands on Go For the Jugular and The Concept EP) in terms of sound and meaning. It’s somewhat interesting to listen to them all in a row, since you can pretend to see how the singers life generally went. In the first album, he was young and so in love that it hurt. In the second album he was dumped horribly and went into a depression spiral. He seem that way the first time I saw them in concert. Then the EP came out and he found someone else that was hot as hell. He seemed that way the third time I saw them (around the same time the EP was coming out). With this new installment, it seems like he finally got his shit figured out and is a damaged but stable person. I’m just speculating here, so don’t quote. It was just funny to speculate.
Anyways, this album has more favorite tracks on it than any of the previous ones, and I’m trying to place exactly why. Maybe it’s because the music has grown up a little, and myself with it. Maybe it’s the fact that they’ve cleaned up the sound a lot and it seems there is a lot more composition effort put forth by the entire band. The guitar in particular seems to be a bit more intricate then either of the previous albums.
On the flip side to all of this is the fact that the songs do not, for the most part, seem as personal as the previous ones, even the remake of Appreciation (renamed to Appreciate and the Bomb) doesn’t seem as strong as its EP counterpart. Maybe that’s what I meant when I said they were getting more mainstream sounding. You lose a bit of the heart when you try to sell more records. Maybe they’re actually not as depressed now, and instead of being hypocritical, they’re actually writing happier stuff. I don’t know for sure, and I don’t really care.
It’s a good album, but the best from them I don’t think. I love lots of tracks on this CD, but it just doesn’t “do” it for me. I like those tracks individually, but I don’t know if I can listen to the whole CD more then maybe twice before I start skipping tracks and abusing my favorites. Worth listening to, even worth owning (if only to support the band). I’ll stand firm and say that their EP is their best all around album. I can listen to that on repeat till forever.
7/10
Categories: Music Reviews
Tagged under: 7/10, EP, music, Music Reviews, No Really I'm fine, Reviews, The Spill Canvas