Review Summary: Been there, done that, seen that, sung that. Another album for the masses that doesn't even match up to the poor quality radio rock.
For those of you who don’t refuse to listen to radio rock you’ve probably heard the song that goes a little like “Could’ve been the champagne, the champagne, could’ve been the cocaine.” This was Cavo’s first taste of mainstream success and as far as mainstream rock goes it was decent. They let that off their first EP but finally released their first full length on the 11th of August. I knew starting this album that Cavo didn’t have much more playability than this song. “Champagne” was a jet-fire charged song that would likely be overplayed by most radio stations anyways. However did I know that I would be so right? The album started off with “Champagne” and fell off instantly after that, not that it was spectacular before that.
After hearing “Champagne” I thought that the album, like most generic rock albums would be halved into ballads and party rock songs. Much to my surprise the rest of the album was filled with ballad like songs. Not a single other party rock song is to be found here. After hearing the opener I was almost sure that I would find some Nickelback-esk crap on here but the rest makes up just mediocre boring ballads. The second track “Crash” is okay when it comes to the standards of this genre. Now one thing I never used to understand from many people was their hate for mainstream radio rock. Masses claimed it was boring, generic and just plain old talent-less music. Had I not began listening to bands like Brand New, Rise Against, Nine Inch Nails and Anberlin, I would probably be glorified this album and coveted it for months. “Crash” has some pretty decent vocals on top of most simplistic instrument playing.
Honestly the most impressive thing Cavo does with this album is the short bass line at the beginning of the album opener. Also lately the term or word “ghost” has been being raped in songs, used in titles especially. Of course on this album the fifth song entitled “Ghost” uses the phrase “ghost of you” which can be heard in numerous places besides this album. Daughtry had a song on his latest album called “Ghost of Me” which followed suit of My Chemical Romance’s actual good song “Ghost of You.” It’s just a term that is getting old and overused and bands should really start to think of some new ideas and stop ripping each other off.
The entire album is nothing new. It brings absolutely nothing new to any musical genre in existence. “Champagne” was good for the first few listens but when the radio stations decided it’d be a good idea to play it 40 times a day; it sort of killed the minimal life of the song. Now mainstream rock is never going to have the respect in this world that a lot of other music does but it needs to start the process of figuring out a different path to take. When it comes to this genre, bands like Chevelle, Cold, Foo Fighters, Shinedown and Velvet Revolver are there to set the example to these new coming bands. My advice to bands such as Cavo is to take this advice, mix it up and make a more diverse album that isn’t just filled with boring ballads. Make something with spark and spite.
