Review Summary: A straight-forward acoustic rock album that will please some and annoy others.
Ahh, the feeling you get when an athlete releases an album. Usually you wish they would just shut up and play, like Shaq showed us years ago. But here, you hear some upside to an athlete who is playing guitar instead of baseball. Ben Broussard, a major league 1st baseman, put out his own independent album in 2005 while playing for the Cleveland Indians. The album is mostly acoustic rock, with some electric parts recorded over the tracks. The album never really seems to deviate from its straight-forward approach to the music.
The first half of the album is the stronger of the 2. The opener, I Hate Goodbyes, is probably the best song on the album. It's not as corny as the rest of the album can sometimes get, and its got a pretty good chorus. Take it all Back and 105 are weak, with the first sounding exactly the same throughout and the latter tries to hard to be a pretty song to actually be one. Again is one of the more rocking tunes on the album, and it benefits from a nice distorted guitar in the chorus and through the verses. Three is just more of the same, and you start to wonder if you have heard it before. I Know It Will is pretty annoying, and once again tries to hard to accomplish anything.
The second half of the album is quite repetitious, but does have some upside. Hold on To Me, Decision, Children, and Hitting the Ground might as well be one song. Thats the problem with the record, not bad playing or bad songs, but total repetition. If Ben could write some different sounding songs, this album could be pretty good. Deep is one of the only songs on the album that doesn't sound like the rest. A different beat and a beat boxing breakdown keep this one different and unique. The Day also has a new feel, and plucking the strings instead of strumming them helps, too.
Overall, the album is an average, run of the mill acoustic rock album with a couple good songs.
