I figured since this album was released less than a month ago, and I will be attending their concert in May, I might as well right a review on them. This will be my second review, my first being Knorkator.
To describe The Sounds, I would just say really happy pop/rock music, that is just easy to stick in your cd player and enjoy whenever you need to. It's not "thinking" music where you have to pay attention to every instrument to enjoy it. It has it's good and it's bad moments, but for what it is, it's a great album just to have fun with.
For a track by track review-
1. Song with a Mission- This song, is an alright song. Starts out with a cowbell then goes into a bit of bass and the riff comes in which sounds extremely familiar. To me, it first reminded me of "Walk idiot Walk" by a random band I heard about a year ago, but this song is fairly catchy. Random female voices erupt through-out the song, the guitars/vocals and everything sound very nice together. 3/5
2. Queen of Apology- Starts off with a short guitar riff that leads into the song, which then the bass and synth pop in. This song is one of the more catchy songs of the album. The singer really brings the song to life, and her voice just works extremely well with the synth and bass going on the background. It's one of those songs that after the album is over, you will have it stuck in your head. 5/5
3. Tony The Beat - This was a favorite song of mine when I first bought it, and still is addictive as hell to hear. Just the way the song goes, especially the intro which just has random odd stop/go instruments/vocals. The chorus also is quite interesting, I love the odd synth in the song, it adds an even more catchyness to the already catchy song. It's a very upbeat song. The singing in this song is good also, I am not good at criticizing vocals, but there is nothing I can bad about them. The lyrics aren't anything special, not at all, but that really doesn't matter to me with this band. 5/5
4. 24 Hours - A song pretty much about sounds like a breakup, and then finding someone new, or a breakup and reflecting on the past times or whatnot. Usually songs about that sort of stuff are cheesy, and well, this whole band is cheesy so I guess that isn't a bad thing for them. There is nothing special about the instruments on this song, rather than a short guitar solo near the middle. Not a memorable song at all. 3/5
5. Painted By Numbers - Opens up with a very dancy synth, and then goes into a quick bass/vocal style as the guitar slowly creeps into the mix. The things that mostly stick out in this song is the synth and vocals. The little keyboard/piano solo in the middle makes a good change of pace to the lyrics afterwords to a "na na na na na na" in good and upbeat way. 5/5
6. Night After Night - The first ballad of the album. A very slow song that opens up with a piano and the singer and it pretty much is just that through-out most of the beginning of the song. After a minute or so, the drums start to kick in with a pretty repetitive beat for another minute until finally after 2:20 the song takes a change and has a very very nice piano peice in the middle of the song, which happens to be a good highlight of the song. In my opinion, the singers voice isn't to great for a slow song. 3/5
7. Ego- The upbeat returns with again, a synth opening the song with the singer saying pretty aggressive lyrics. She even uses the dreaded "F" word which should make children cry, I am not supposed to hear those words and those evil lyrics. With this song, a guy singer makes an appearance and I dislike his voice A LOT. I guess it's a catchy song, but I just don't like the male singer in this song. It's not a bad song at all, and I am not a guy hating lyrical person, it's just not to good and very short.. 2/5
8. Hurt You - Yay, after I say I dislike the guy singing, what is to come a song where a guy is singing most of the time-and ANOTHER few evil "F" words are thrown around. I guess you can say this is a good catchy song, and the guys vocals aren't to bad on this song. There is a part or the chorus around 1:46 reminds me of another song entirely that I have heard in the 80's but I can't put my finger on it. Interesting song, with a lot of sound effects thrown in all over the place in the middle. 3/5
9. Much Too Long - More synth starting this song out which again lead into the vocals, I guess I shouldn't say the formula of their songs to much or I will sound a bit repetitive. The vocals on this aren't to great, there is just something about this song that irks me to the point where I don't want to listen to it. It has an interesting guitar part mixed with dancy synth in the middle, but other than that, not really a standout track. 2/5
10. Running Out Of Turbo- "Hey Hey Hey , that's what I say" Eh, nothing to bright there, and not to mention it sounds horrible from the get-go, and repeats that part quite a bit for the chorus. Interesting synth work, and although the guitar/drums makes for some interesting dancy pop music. A guitar solo in the middle does add a bit more to the song which makes it a bit more fun to listen to, but other than that it's nothing special for a close of an album. 3/5
11. Night after Night- But wait, the hidden track slowly appears which is a faster version of Night after Night, and to me, it sounds quite a bit better than the slower version in the middle of the album. No piano solo part in the middle makes it a bit less interesting in the middle of the song, what replaces it is a synth solo which would seem obvious, sounds nothing as good as the piano part though. 3.5 *her voice fits in much better.
Anyway, as for my second review- The Sounds Dying to say This to You. It's not the best album you will ever buy, but if you want something fun to listen to that is very poppy, this would be a nice band for you to listen to.
