Hailing from Canada, this band has toured with the likes of 3 Doors Down, Nickleback, and 3 Days Grace. One can certainly tell the influence of these bands, and if any is more prevelent, it'd be Nickleback. However, with their second full-length release, Theory of a Deadman has pulled ahead of their fellow Canadian band and put more distance between themselves both with their writing and their overall packaging of this record.
Tyler Connolly's vocals on the album are still awesome, and pull ahead of many others in the same business. The bass, as is unfortunately with many popular bands, is too far down, and not out-standing enough to even be mentioned beyong this sentence. The 'lead' guitar, if that's what it could be called, is well played for rhythm, but many of the 'leads' are rather weak. The drums are good at keeping the beat, and add small cool extras in the songs, but for the most part, are doing only what this record requires, instead of going above and beyond. Still, the band is good for what they're trying to achieve.
On to the album.
Track One: Hating Hollywood is an okay song. It was a good start for the album, with a good driving hook at the beginning to get a few different schools of audiences interested. The vocals weave a good melody over some crunchy distortion. During the bridge, the guitar does a semi-solo thing with a rather predictable wah-wah, but it does well for the purpose of this song.
Overall: 3.8/5
Track Two: No Way Out is a better song, with a more interesting chord progression, and the bass finally becomes hearable, but only after the guitar stops playing for a part of the verse. The rhythm guitars do well, and the singer does well with the music. The real good hook comes with the chorus, when some vocal harmonies get stuck in your head over semi-distorted guitars and a simple drum part. There is also another semi-solo with wah, but it isn't really worth any notice.
Overall: 4/5
Track Three: No Surprise, the single from this record, really deserved to be the single. It's a strong strong with a strong hook. The acoustic part is catchy and creative in a popular-band kind of way. The electric riff played over the main progression is catchy and well placed. The chorus changes the mode of the song a bit, and makes a good transition for the vocalist from chorus back to verse. The ending lyric is really good, however predictable it is. The bridge, when everything but the guitar is pulled out is predictable, but the part is good, and catchy, with some great harmonies in the back (however processed the vocals are). It's mysecond favourite tune on this album.
Overall: 4.8/5
Track Four: Quiver seems like a filler. It's not that strong of a song, but it's worth a listen at least once all the way through. The heavy acoustic part during the verse is entertaining, but it's been done before. "What makes me sick, what makes me quiver?" has a cool chromatic progression under it, and there's a stronger lead in there with wah, but it's still not that great.
Overall: 3/5
Track Five: Santa Monica, which was also on the Indigo Prophecy soundtrack, is an overrated song at best. The harmonics over the chords are cool, and the first lyric is creative. It follows a very repetative theme through this album about girls leaving the singer. The chorus is kind-of catchy, but it doesn't hold for repeated plays. The kick-drum sounds awesome in this song, as does the acoustic's tone. The bridge is another cool chromatic line, but that alone doesn't make it a good song.
Overall: 2.7/5
Track Six: Better Off is destined to be a very underrated song. The beginning has a cool recording trick done with the guitar, into a crunchy guitar line, which drives this song into a rather catchy vocal line all throughout. During the chorus, there's a lot of harmony in the background, especially during his 'better off' background choir-like harmony. The bridge is strong, and does well at linking the song together. It's a strong tune to keep the listeners interested.
Overall: 4.5/5
Track Seven: Say Goodbye has a slide guitar part in the background of the verse, which adds some cool effet onto the vibe of the song. The chord changes are done in a cool way, all the way into the chorus. The little "I said," "She said," parts in the background vocals are catchy and well done. The drums are predictable, but definitely work for this song. The bridge uses some harmonics with distortion, but doesn't last very long.
Overall: 3.7/5
Track Eight: Hello Lonely. This is a soft song, but a very strong one. The chord progression uses a lot of common notes, and works very well. The melody is catchy and puts across the jaded feel the lyrics portray. The pre-chorus is perhaps the best part of the song, with a great vocal line. The chorus is overdone and too predictable. It uses some of the same language as a couple other songs on this album. The verse and pre-chorus, however, hold this song up nicely. The bridge is a well put together piece of rhythmic octaves into a transitional melody to an almost acapella pre-chorus.
Overall: 4/5
Track Nine: Me and My Girl starts out with a cool acoustic beginning. It resembles Better Off a lot, but strays during the chorus, which uses a smaller range of vocabulary and words. Instead it relies on a sing-along style harmonized part for those that like to sing along in cars. It seems like another filler song, with a predictable bridge back into the rest of the song.
Overall: 2.7/5
Track Ten: Since You've Been Gone is personally my favourite track on the record. It's slightly cheesed-up, but the chords change very nicely from the end of one measure to the restart of it. The drums stand out more and help set the tone of this song. The chorus is a total sing-along part with a great harmony part. It's another jaded 'she left me' tune, but it really stands out. It seems there was more time put into the song-writing. The vocals are more soulful and heartfelt, and they even add strings in the back for the whole 'sad-ending-story' feel. Overall, this is a strong song, granted a pop-song.
Overall: 5/5
Track Eleven: Hell Just Ain't The Same is a fun little diddy that sets a 'down-home' setting. It's a great little song that gave me a laugh.
Overall: N/A
Track Twelve: Save The Best For Last seemed like it'd be the best song on the album from the title, but it ended up being fairly weak. Some cool distorted slide at the beginning provides some entertainment, then the chorus comes in and it provides a cool hook with some slide in the back. But the verse doesn't provide much of an anchor. They bring it down again for the bridge with a semi-solo from the slide guitar.
Overall: 3.5/5
Track Thirteen: The final tune on this album, In The Middle, is a good ending to the album with a more upbeat and love-song-feel. Instead of being a scorned man, he sings about being with his girl at the end of the world with a beautiful melody, and the guitars are finger-picked quite well. It climaxes toward the end of the song with distorted guitars and more complicated drum beats, and then goes back down softly to end the CD with some guitar feedback that was rather well-done.
Overall: 4/5
JUDGEMENT: This CD was a strong album pretty much all the way through. The singer sets himself apart from comparisons with Nickleback by pulling far ahead of Chad Croeger [or however you spell it]. Gasoline is definitely worth a listen, and certainly worth buying. The lyrics are repetative and often repeat the same-exact themes, but are gernerally entertaining and all the songs are at least worth one good listen.
4.5 OUT OF 5: Awesome
