ALBUM REVIEW: "Vacation" by Seaway

I don't know much about this band, so I wasn't really expecting anything in particular from Vacation, but what I got was an enjoyable pop-punk album loaded with a bunch of influences from 90's alt-rock, from Third Eye Blind to Weezer. Basically it's a fun, chorus-laden sing-along of an album injected with some healthy nostalgia factor. The songwriting is the album's greatest strength here; the majority of the tracks are sharp and catchy with interesting guitar parts and great choruses, if sometimes formulaic. The album sounds good, particularly in the guitar department, but the drums lack a bit of punch and seem to sit a little too far back in the mix for my liking. The only other problem I have is how "pop" the vocals sound - this is normally where pop-punk bands tip a little too far towards the pop end of the spectrum for my liking, and Vacation suffers a similar ailment. Having said that, there's a lot of fun to be had on this album. Get learning those choruses for a summer drive.

Favourite Tracks: Apartment, Misery In You and 40 Over

Least Favourite Track: Lula On The Beach

Rating: B

Comments

A Response To 'Christian' Views On Secular Music

Is there such thing as music that Christians shouldn’t listen to? Should we be dismissive of music with either explicit language or sexual, violent or substance oriented themes? Should anyone even be telling anyone else what they can and can’t listen to? These are questions that are thrown around a lot in Christian circles, and given what I do here on this blog and how that overlaps with my job working for the church, I thought I would share my thoughts on this topic. I’ll say this at the outset so that we’re on the same page – I think any attempt to dictate what people should and shouldn’t listen to is stupid and disrespectful on a fundamental level. I’ll go into detail about why I think that later on, but for now here are some thoughts I have on some of the “Christian” opinions I come across pretty regularly. The first and most ludicrous thing that seems to follow me around is the idea that because I listen to underground genres, particularly on the heavy metal ...

1 YEAR LATER: "22, A Million" by Bon Iver

Bon Iver's third studio album turns 1 in about a week (where did that year go?), so I thought it would be interesting to talk a bit about how my impressions of the album have changed - or how they haven't - over the last 12 months. When this album was released I was more excited than I think I ever have been to hear a new album. For Emma, Forever Ago is one of my all time favourites, and I love his self-titled second album too, so I had huge expectations for this album, but was also wary that expectations might ruin my experience of the music. This was particularly the case for 22, A Million , because it is unlike anything else Justin Vernon has released. There have been hints at this more processed, electronic direction previously, like the song "Woods" on the Blood Bank EP and occasional flourishes on Bon Iver , but 22, A Million is a drastic departure from the Bon Iver sound we had grown accustomed to at this point in time. Or at least, that's what I thought...

Should Brand New be in my top 20? (CONTENT WARNING: sexual abuse)

For those who read both top 20 albums lists that I did - one here on thatmusicnerd and one over at Kill Your Stereo - you will have noticed, I'm sure, that one had The Ongoing Concept's album Places at number 1, and the other had Brand New's Science Fiction at the top. Full disclosure, I initially had Brand New at the top of just the one list, but the readership of Kill Your Stereo reacted very strongly against the allegations of sexual misconduct against Brand New frontman Jesse Lacey and so I removed it entirely. In fact, none of the KYS contributors' top 20 lists featured Science Fiction at all. Of course I was happy to follow the general consensus in regards to whether or not an artist accused of such things should be promoted by a music publication, but I still stand by my opinion that Science Fiction was the best album of 2017 and as such it was number 1 on my thatmusicnerd top 20 list. 2017 has been a pretty crazy year in terms of the ...

Read Poets Society

Search This Blog