SECRETS
Fragile Figures


4.0
excellent

Review

by Justus USER (1 Reviews)
July 24th, 2013 | 4 replies


Release Date: 2013 | Tracklist

Review Summary: Richard Rogers' sung vocals act as the guiding force of the talented, post-hardcore band, Secrets, as their sophomore album succeeds in delivering eleven great tracks.

Over one and a half years have passed since the release of Secrets’ debut album, The Ascent, whereas they now possess that of a new vocalist and bassist. Based in San Diego, California, this post-hardcore quintet’s current lineup consists of Joe English, Aaron Melzer, Michael Owens, Richard Rogers, and Michael Sherman, and as is undoubtedly demonstrated through Fragile Figures, these individuals have proven to be quite the capable bunch. Melzer, formerly of the Orange County metal act, Author and Finisher, has succeeded in complementing Rogers’ notably outstanding sung vocals, making an excellent new addition to the band; dynamic screams are commonplace amidst Fragile Figures, with Melzer, since the departure of Xander Bourgeois, having only aided in the progression of Secrets as a musical force. Recurrent producer, Tom Denney, has seemed to grow with them as well, as this second LP has discarded the inadequacies of a markedly muddier debut.

Just as Fragile Figures had me beginning to feel somewhat fatigued, the mostly acoustic, eleventh and last song on the album, presented a great change of pace; ‘Sleep Well, Darling’ acts as an exceptional, intimate conclusion to the LP. For those who would like to listen to a few songs before deciding whether or not to commit to the entire album, however, I would recommend beginning with the catchy lead singles, ‘Ready for Repair’ and ‘Maybe Next May,’ along with that of the intense, ‘How We Survive’ and ‘Live Together, Die Alone’ – the whole album can currently be found on Rise Records’ YouTube channel. Clocking in at a bit less than forty minutes total, Secrets’ engaging lyrics and mostly commendable arrangements create that of an excellent, but not unfathomably excellent, sophomore release that is worthy of attention.


user ratings (206)
3.5
great
other reviews of this album
PumpBoffBag STAFF (2.5)
Nothing to see here, folks...

BassDemon333 (3.5)
Secrets improve their sound tremendously despite treading familiar territory....

iAmSceneWinkyFace (4)
A new vocalist, and what sounds like a new band...



Comments:Add a Comment 
AlecBaldwin
July 24th 2013


152 Comments


I can see you're new, so here's some thoughts to (hopefully) help you improve a little bit in the future

I've read the review twice now, and I'm still not that sure what makes this album so good that it's worthy of an "Excellent" score. I don't have any idea what Secrets sound like, you don't really go into any detail about what makes certain songs stand out or special and there are few extra commas which made it a fairly clunky read.

For instance, your summary could be: "Richard Rogers' sung vocals act as the guiding force of the talented post-hardcore band Secrets, as their sophomore album succeeds in delivering eleven great tracks."

The first comma after "talented" isn't necessary because it's not replacing a word (like "and"), and neither is putting the band's name in bracket commas because their name is important to how the sentence reads. When you use bracket commas, always read the sentence without the bracketed part and see if it still reads okay. If it doesn't, take out the commas; if it does, keep them in.

The first sentence of the review would read a lot smoother if it were more simple: "Over one and a half years have passed since the release of Secrets’ debut album, The Ascent, and they now possess a new vocalist and bassist."

You don't need to list the names of the band members because the reader won't really care (in fairness, I did that when I started reviewing as a way to get more words into the review!). Try not to include unnecessary details - like the whole YouTube channel thing. There's nothing wrong with writing short reviews, as long as they are clear about what's good/bad about the album.



merpmerp
July 24th 2013


804 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0

you didn't really the describe the music at all... you more so gave us a backstory on the band, rather

than a review of the album. it is well written though, just go into more detail on the overall sound

of the album.

spartanawasp
July 24th 2013


303 Comments


^What merp said. Barely described the music.

Also, you should maybe split those 2 giant paragraphs.

Justus
August 15th 2013


1 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0

To those who have commented here thus far -

It’s great that you were all pretty constructive and gave some legitimate feedback (AlecBaldwin especially) - thanks!

To everybody -

After reading more reviews and putting everything that was said into perspective, I’m aware of the unfortunately major error of not going into any depth regarding the sound (a quite embarrassing blunder on my part) and see how I could have improved some other things too. I hope most of the readers got something out of this regardless, but I’ll certainly take more time to review before my next submission. Farewell for now, internet brethren



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