Labels: Substandard
Review by: Andy Malcolm
Do you want to hear one of the most disappointing records of last year? Then pick up the UaDS album, because that is exactly what this record is. In fact, it was so disappointing that I never bothered to review it until now, some months after I first heard it. It’s not that UaDS made a rubbish record, far from it, this is a very listenable and decent album. They just failed to put together an album that lived up to the excellence of their previous releases for me. I mean, they still have the agressive yet melodic Yaphet Kotto style riffage, opener “Breathe In” is in fact a great start to the CD, bringing a stuttery groove and passionate vocals to the forefront, spiralling around quite brilliantly, descending into a fine emo breakdown too. This is the band at their very best, and it’s frustrating to hear awesome moments like this and others sprinkled throughout the album, only for other parts of this album to let me down. There are no 8 minute long epics, no bits where they go all screamy and cry, it’s all cleaned up and made a fair bit more accessible and day to day. Far less emo and much more rock. More Sunny Day Real Estate in a way. Now I love Sunny Day, but they were so good that it’s hard to live up to that comparison. Oh well.
No, this album isn’t poor, I in fact do quite like it, and if you’ve not heard their prior releases you probably wouldn’t whine as much as I am. It’s just that I was expecting it to be downright jaw droppingly amazing instead of merely solid. Which is a bit of a shame. Anyways, it’s melodic, a lot of people will like the sound and it’s definitely better than a lot of other stuff in this genre, just not as good as it should have been.