Last Letter Read - These Stories Roll - CD (2009)

Labels: self released
Review by: Andy Malcolm

Fist pumping Fall Out Boy style bands don’t get much shrift around these parts. As much as my less than documented enjoyment of the most recent Jimmy Eat World LP might suggest otherwise, it’s not really the sort of thing that I tend to abide, and I don’t think Last Letter Read quite have quite the same song writing chops as those affable lads from Jimmy. On here there are 4 songs in the typical anthemic style of heart on the sleeve MTVmo pop bands, you get the break down, the prototypical whiney vocals, the occasional vocals on the telephone, the boy band all together vocals, yeah, it’s here. Rocking right out of the chorus and into the contemplative breakdown! You know what’s to blame for this kind of music? “Something to Write Home About”. I was right to pooh-pooh that LP when it came out and my stance has been proven the correct one with years and years of bollock-less boys with nothing to say and no new way to say it continuing to waste plastic the world over. At least the MP3 / streaming revolution could go some way to curbing that. Anyways. Last Letter Read sound as equally accomplished as pretty much any other band to have played this kind of thing since that fateful Get Up Kids LP, other than Jimmy Eat World, and Man Overboard. And that is more of a shocking indictment of a grim music genre, than a plaudit for pasting over press releases.