Review Summary: Throwing everything away they seemed to create with their debut, I See Stars have hit a level which will be extremely hard to bounce back from.
When a band approaches their debut album, they think of things they could do to attract an audience. You pretty much have this mind set of, what could we do to pull people in to our sound and support us through what we could do in the future. The easiest way to grab someone’s attention is to hit them with something they’re familiar with, yet enjoy at the same time. So when it comes to blending multiple genres of music together, you’re still in a tricky spot simply because so many bands attempt to blend this genre and that genre together in an attempt to create something fresh. When you come forward and show people that you can put two styles together and do it well, that’s when you catch the attention you want and therefore being to build upon what you have established.
With their debut album ‘3-D’, they showed everyone that they can do something wholly unoriginal, yet throw enough surprises in there to make it stand out above the rest of the crowd. When you look back at ‘3-D’, you think of how fun and catchy it was, and at the same time how well the band threw in their heavier moments without having any of those awkward seeming to try to hard moments. It all flowed together well and therefore became a refreshing experience. With ‘The End of the World Party’, I See Stars thinks they have their audience figured out, and does more of this than that and ends up completely blowing away that fresh excitement they started with only a few short years ago.
It’s not a major problem when you substitute something good with something else that could be good, as long as you make people believe that the replacement has enough power to equal out what you took away. While not completely removing it from their sound, the band has seemed to push away their heavier moments and spare them for a few select moments throughout the record. The problem with this for people like me is that those heavier moments, were some of my favorites from what the band has done before. I had actually hoped for more of it in this album, but those few moments were actually gifted with it are worth the excitement you receive when you hear them. Opening track ‘The End of the World Party’ is a bit of a tease, because it’s a song that gets you anticipating what’s to follow.
Leaning more on their older style with the opening track, were given an extremely catchy and hook driven track that people like me looked forward to hearing on the record. Blasting through comes Zach Johnson’s undeniably awesome high screams, backed with spacey synth and an awesome amount of energy. Ruining the experience just a tad bit though comes Devin Oliver, one of those people who can actually sing, but chooses to rely on the use of auto-tune to “amp” his singing voice. He’s a great vocalist, but ultimately drags himself down with that heavy use of electronics. As the album progresses beyond the opening track though, we’re hit with that morph in sound as mentioned before. Songs like ‘Still Not Quite Enough’ and ‘Home For the Weekend’ are ultra poppy, often cheesy tracks that point out the totally wrong direction this band is headed in.
Sure, those songs are catchy, but more is needed to really find a reason to enjoy songs like those which are found all over this album. I really found myself liking more parts of this album rather than whole songs, such as the ending of ‘Wonderland’, which hits you with an awesome breakdown. Of course, this is all following what I would call a decent track. It’s songs like ‘The Common Hours II’ and ‘The End of the World Party’ which bring that same smile back to my face that I had while listening to their first album. They’re catchy and fun, but do a great job of switching between that heavier sound and pop influenced styles. Such as in ‘Wonderland’, the track ‘Upside Down’ isn’t a horrible track, but gets better when Zach Johnson enters and completely turns the song around.
‘The End of the World Party’ is a change for I See Stars, and one that just may manage to pull away some of that fan base they tried so hard to create. The only thing enjoyable here are the little moments, and whether you choose to hate them just as much as you hate the songs they’re in, that’s up to you and what you prefer. In my opinion, this band needs to sit down and establish their sound, because at this point, they seem more confused than anything.
