Review Summary: More Limited than Limitless
Tonight Alive are a band that have evolved at each release. With their immensely maturer (yeah that’s not a word) album “The Other Side” setting a new standard, it’s a shame that their latest offering Limitless is…wait for it…incredibly limited.
Starting off with a semi-vocoded, semi-autotuned electronica track “To Be Free” situating the atmosphere of the album with synthesizers and an overall poppier and cheesier Tonight Alive, the album continues the trend of spirituality and an awakening that becomes almost cringeworthy as the theme ensues throughout the 40-minute album.
Frontwoman Jenna McDougall has always showcased her diverse and dynamic voice since their first release back in 2008 and this is something that thankfully remains throughout the record, but the lyrical and musical content in Limitless tends to drag her voice down. Songs like “Drive” with its somewhat 90’s black-lady pop sound and its dreadful lyrics “Oh-oh no no no no and we say yeah yeah yeah yeah No no no no My way or the highway” really should have been thrown into the b-sides folder. The single “Waves” is essentially a ballad version of the same calibre. It’s a little Hillsong-y with its lyrics and it’s ever-so tiring “your love comes in waves” chorus.
We then travel onto tracks like “Everywhere” which may just push the band into radio territory – or at least, maybe it would have in the early 2000’s. Tonight Alive turned into new Coldplay for a second here.
The whole album follows some sort of otherworldly theme about the betterment of society and “believing in the power of one” and as the single “I Defy” goes
“You think that you own me
But you'll never take the best of me
Cos I am the only
One to create my destiny
I'm not afraid to cross the line
You will break as I defy”
Not into that upbeat and empowerment stuff? Then you’ll learn to quickly dislike this album.
If you embrace change, you’ll like this album. If you like electronic effects straight out of the 80s then you’ll love it.
If you want the old Tonight Alive – this isn’t where you’ll find them.
