The Forecast just may be responsible for bringing Alt-Country into the infamous “Scene”. Sure, the Illinois quartet may not represent the genre very well, but they take a fairly obvious influence. The album’s second single
Some Things Never Change is the song most capable of the above statement. The lyrics and vocals give off a sort of Taking Back Sunday vibe, especially when singer’s Shannon Burns and Dustin Addis belt out
“Slowdance, a last chance. To tell you everything you need to hear.” over a distortion soaked chorus. The verses however wouldn’t be out of place on Country 92.5 (or whatever your local Country station is). It’s light acoustic chords, strummed, dissolve underneath a thick layer of bass, electric licks and lyrics like
Sleeps been comin’ hard for me, Cause when I sleep I dream of You . Even the song’s guitar solo, which from a Victory Records signed band is pretty great, sounds straight out of the South.
Due to the high quality of Some Things Never Change, it’s a shame that The Forecast don’t take the route of Acoustic Ballad more often, with the near lo-fi sounding 1:50 minuter,
You’re My Needle, and the semi-spoken word explanation of touring,
Welcome Home being really the only others. But, if the album’s second single proved they could create a great ballad, leave it to the first single to show another side to the band.
And We All Return to Our Roots is, probably, the best Pop-Punk song Victory Records has released since the early days of Taking Back Sunday. The song’s hook,
All I want, All I want is a little place of my own where I can rest my head is sung by Bass Player (and female) Shannon Burns over top a fairly straight Pop-Punk riff, and it makes for an excellent chorus. The verses aren’t quite as accessible, with semi-experimental guitar arpeggios making up the majority of the instrumentation.
As far the vocals of The Forecast are concerned, they aren’t bad, better than most Pop-Punk bands today. Burns most definitely has a stronger voice than her male partner. It’s more fun to listen to (and sing along to) and isn’t nearly as whiny as Addis’. In many songs Addis’ John Nolan-esque vocals don’t work at all. The guitars, on the other hand, are much more consistent with their quality. This is a good thing, even though the guitarists aren’t much better than mediocre. There isn’t a terrible amount of variety in the playing, but the Country influence is a breath of fresh air when compared to most of Victory’s bands. And when the riffs aren’t lame, faux-heavy Post Hardcore attempts, such as the otherwise great
Its a Long Drive , they aren’t bad to listen to. The bass and drums, while not bad, are hardly spectacular and sort of generic. At least you can actually hear the bass though. All in all, while
In The Shadow of Two Gunmen may be original when compared to many of the Pop-Punk bands today, they still suffer from some of the same generic problems. The most original songs (i.e. The more Alt-Country ones) are usually the best, but all of the tracks are fun and usually catchy. All of these ingredients manage to earn In the Shadow of Two Gunmen a 3.5/5.
From me, at least.
-Dan
