Labels: Santos
Review by: Andy Malcolm
Ah, the mighty Autumn Year. Mightily boring Autumn Year that is. Apart from the first 140 seconds or so, which is of droning electronica with a funny robotic voice. I enjoyed that part, and would have heartily endorsed the band continuing in this mode for the next 35 minutes, instead of inflicting me with their brand of circa 1998 sub-par emo rock.
Of course, I love bands a whole bunch of bands that rehash various styles of music, but only when they do it any good. Autumn Year just, sorta sit there, playing this stuff that has been milked as often as 1000 year old dairy cow. That’s just exactly how much this style has been milked. Stick a fork in that cow, I believe it is about done. And if you can’t play this style even as well as a band that played it so averagely even in 1998 (Compound Red), then why bother? Why be not as good as average? Why have whiney annoying vocals that sound like Mineral? Why not. I guess. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to do those things if that’s what you like, and there is no reason why you shouldn’t be allowed to play it, then send it for review, and have me kind of shrug my shoulders and go “whatever dude, your band sucks”. It’s not as if they are even the worst band in the UK to play this kind of material (that’d be the mind numbingly dull And None of Them Knew They Were Robots…), so I can’t be callously awful. Shame. I did actually like the EP these guys put out ages ago though, and I do remember it being much better than this.
Ok, here is the emo rock check list. I designed this so I could make reviews easier:
chuggy hardcore riffage : check
in joke : check (well, I presume that’s why they start track 2 with an inane homage to old metal)
uninspired acoustic track that exists on 99.99% of CD’s by bands that sound like they are from 1998 : check
lots of pretty bits : check
annoying vocals : check
really fucking awful ‘hidden’ track : check
not quite bad enough to have featured on Emo Diaries Vol. 8 “13 more pointless songs about girls” : check
not fit to polish Christie Front Drives shoes : check
Well, I quite like the pretty bits I should say. They sound like all these bands that play the exact same thing. So Autumn Year go wrong with the vocals, and the noisy bits. Too bad huh?
Recommended for all fans of half rate bands that knock off Mineral and Texas is the Reason! You’ll like this if you think that any of the things I have written as negatives are positives, and I know that many people think that way! Can’t say fairer than that! I think this is still a pretty shit CD though! I’ll go now before I become even more of an arsehole in this review than I already have been!