It really is you know. Go on, write it out the other way and see for yourself.
In any case, as witty a title as this is, this album is a serious labour of love by 3 young musicians who have lived out most people’s dream idea. From saving money from their part time weekend jobs, and borrowing off friends, they went out and bought professional recording equipment. They transformed their friend’s house into a semi professional recording studio. Then they went to work one summer to create an album full of heart-felt songs, which had either been around since school, or had just popped into their heads that morning. And this 16-track album is the result.
Its pretty pointless doing a detailed track-by-track run down of this, mainly as most songs are in the same vein, yet it doesn’t make them repetitive (on the whole). But they need some introduction, as each does have their own charm.
Starting track
No One Wins The War is a good album starter, which gives you the first taste of the recording quality, considering the source. Some studio albums don’t sound this good. Solid guitar work, and a mixture of mellow and screamed vocals, and a shout out to fellow Brit rockers Hell Is For Heroes all come together to give the introductory Reuben package.
Horrorshow is another solid piece with a steady beat, and some well written vocals, before the main part which is another good section
Stuck In My Throat comes flying in like a freight train with its distortion and scream, but turns into a fantastic vocal driven piece, and is probably contender for best track on the album.
Oh The Shame fits the bill well as another good mixture of guitar and vocal moments, as does
Fall Of The Bastille although the latter is heavier in its conduct, and has some memorable little break down moments.
Freddy Kreuger is the most popish song on the album by far. A instantly catchy riff, and some vocals about teen life….and no, not the ‘girlfriends, going to party, etc’ style, these are a bit more thought out, but still includes the hook of “This girl that Im so sick of..”. Brilliant lines at the heart of it must be mentioned.
“My name is Freddy Kreuger, and I’ve got the elm street blues.
I’ve got a hand like a knife rack, and I die in every film”
It’s those clever, but universal lyrics that make Jamie a great vocalist.
Tonight My Wife Is Your Wife is a tempting offer…..and also another solid song, carrying a now familiar Reuben style sound, which has yet to tire and become predictable.
Eating Only Apples is more bass orientated in the into, which was overdue, and is also one of the oldest songs in the Reuben catalogue.
Our Song seems a bit more attempts-to-be-metalfied, but really doesn’t stand out much.
Lets Stop Hanging Out, another pop song, with a punk attitude behind it, and a sing along moment in it. If you’ve heard a Reuben song, it was probably this, a sit was one of the singles and seemed to be played constantly at some points on MTV2.
Missing Fingers has a live show snippet at the beginning, which is barely audible, maybe as an excuse for you to turn your volume up. For the second you do, Jamie bursts in with the aggressive vocal assault. The most prog-ish piece on the album, it goes through some mellow stages and then back into heavy riff driven verses.
Song For Saturday..awww crap, we got mellow. They do it well though, even if there isn’t a lot special about it apart from the lessening of noise compared to the rest of the album
Moving To Blackwater sounds big, and is one of the newest songs on the album. It’s a great building piece with some strings giving it that extra depth at the end.
Wrong And Sorry is a familiar sounding track, the type of song every band has probably wrote and dismissed. Reuben kept it and nursed it into a more respectable song, and it fits well on the album, but as a stand alone track is still a bit lacking.
Parties Break Hearts finally gives evidence of repetition. There are some cool guitar parts, and an ending vocal fade out, but most of the elements have been done before.
Dusk makes a good ending track. Slow and melodic, and some mumbling during the piano fade out give the song the job of making the album feel complete.
16 tracks. Just under 50 minutes long. This was a brilliant debut album from a band that seems to have nothing but good things ahead of them. Their older tracks are catchy, the newer ones are getting more and more epic, and no one can question their commitment to what they do.
Pros
Large selection of tracks
Ranges from pop tracks right through to Prog
No real bad patches across the album
Well wrote songs
Cons
Maybe a bit repetitive
Songs are only about 2-3 minutes long
No faulting this album at the end of the day. Brilliant mixture of moods, and ranges from the simple to the complex, and both work well in tandem.
