Review Summary: There’s nowhere to go but up from here couldn’t be more ironic.
Broadway was one of the most obscure hardworking bands in the heyday of 2009, where you couldn’t throw a rock without hitting a disheveled band member tearing it up on stage at the ol’ warped tour, laying down some serious junz in the sun. What is disheartening is that there isn’t even any evidence that these guys ever played a show at Warped Tour, and they did it better than anyone else in their respective pool of post-hardcore or as some have coined "genericore", and what I personally have coined “modern post-hardcore.”
Broadway’s musical sound is just my cup of tea, a boisterous soulful act with just the right pinch of punk.
Kingdoms is such a magical little album. Whenever this album makes its way to my ears, my central nervous system releases an array of endorphins. It has this unarguably dreamy atmosphere stretching seamlessly from front to back, and in all honesty, I can’t put my finger on how they created this intoxicating environment for a sweet forty three minutes.
The album begins with what they do best. The first couple tracks
Redeeming A Monster and
The Last Saturday are overflowing with charming melody. Probably my two favorite tracks on the record. You may immediately roll your eyes at the cliche high pitched singing style of lead vocalist Misha Camacho at first listen. But, don’t let it turn you away just yet, because you’ll miss out on some new killer guilty pleasure music, please back me up in the comments, my fellow sputnik users.
The Last Saturday is one of the most standout tracks in this composition. It’s so infectious, and it never fails to leave me in awe with the enchanting chorus, and the second verse will be sure to please any fan of the genre with a fun breakdown accompanied with low pitched and deep grumbling guitar riffs that screams early 00’s metalcore.
One of the more amusing tracks on the album is
Meg RyanWould Play You In A Movie. It almost encapsulates how experimental the song writing formula is on the whole album. This song is so unorthodox it barely has a chorus, and yet it’s so entertaining and impressive the more the song wanders into new strange territory. And I always get a grin on my face when the song breaks into its first bridge, and Misha is singing these cringey lines: “It’s Getting kinda hard to take it slow, when I am up all night thinking about you” over some serious heavy breakdowns. It’s so funny to hear how much this song goes off the rails.
Don't Jump the Shark Before You Save the Whale is definitely one of the more cohesive tracks on the record, and it features a prime Jonny Craig. The song emits a lot of energy as soon as the song begins all the way to the second verse displaying some of the heaviest segments on the record, until it hits the bridge and slows it down for a jazzy lick for Jonny Craig to come in and do what he does best. The heavy part on this song is so raw and organic that it almost mutates into mathcore, and it undoubtedly picks up on
We Are Paramount which indeed is the heaviest track on the record.
One of the most memorable songs whenever I think back at the golden era of post-hardcore, when the genre as a whole was flirting with mainstream popularity,
The Same Thing We Do Everyday Pinky without a doubt is the first thing that comes to my mind. This song is a straight up anthem, not just an impact to the culture of modern post-hardcore but a perfect finale to this fine album. When you listen to this song, it’s like a sweet nostalgic reunion even if you have never heard it. That’s how good they hit the nail on the head when creating the perfect hit single that blew the minds of a generation of emo kids. The music video for this song went viral with the help of Craig Owens being featured.
Unfortunately, Broadway wasn’t able to capitalize after their debut. The band seeping with potential, went into the studio to create a pop-punk oriented sophomore album. Leaving a bad taste in the mouths of the grassroot fans. The band was swallowed whole from a combination of their miscued second album, and losing support from their record label and being left with the daunting risk of creating an album out of pocket which detoured them away from making music all together. There’s nowhere to go but up from here couldn’t be more ironic. The drummer Jake Garland and guitarist Jack Fowler went on to have very successful careers with Memphis May Fire and Sleeping With Sirens.
