Review Summary: Like moldy fruit
Ronnie Radke sure thinks he's the shit. It's no secret. Everyone knows it, and we have all at some point told another person this fact. His new band's new album, "Just Like You", was touted as "Dying is your latest fashion" part deux. Unfortunately, save for a couple of tracks, it was all hot air - Tired, overblown, and annoying. All this hype and anti-hype about that recent train wreck roused my memory of the original piece, leaving a single question. How did the first LP fare over the years? Well, it aged like a banana left out on the kitchen counter. Sure the album is nostalgic, but the quality of music has nothing to do with nostalgia. It has everything to do with the memories associated with the music. It brings to mind some of the better things about high school - jamming the CD with now long-forgotten and dearly missed friends, singing every over-emotional word at concerts with said friends, and how good it felt to connect with another person about the music I loved, no matter how much the music really sucked.
Outside of the nostalgia and the memories, the better moments on the record have lost their once-potent flavor. Like the aforementioned aging banana, the once sweet parts of the album have grown bitter. The lyrics and vocals I once thought were deep, dark, and brutal are now sad and bleeding with melodrama. The instrumentals that once blew my mind on their technicality and speed are now simple and have that done-before feel. Ronnie's drawl, Casey Calvert-esque screams, and often cringe worthy lyrics were the same caliber then as they are today, just with more 'emo' topics. It all ends up as this pseudo-edgy pop punk mess, eerily similar to "Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge", complete with dyed-black hair fringes. The original Ronnie Radke show was as scene as they came. It's okay though, the youthful energy displayed throughout the whole albums is nothing if not admirable, even if the music falls flat 9 years later.
Despite Ronnie's consistent ability to spin a catchy hook and hire a guitarist who can play catchy riffs, the music is nothing more than that- a catchy vocal line here, guitar riff there. My Chemical Romance comparisons aside, this blast from the past is nothing but not-bad-but-not-good pop punk, now an old memory holding little in the way of staying power. It might be that Ronnie's music has always sucked and I was just too naïve to realize it in my youth, or it could be that I no longer need this musical crutch, having moved on to better and more mature music. Perhaps though, just for old time's sake, I'll give Dying Is your latest Fashion another spin. Besides, it sure is a helluva lot better than that Falling in Reverse crap.
