Review Summary: Too Close to Rip Off
When I look for emotion in a post-hardcore/alternative rock effort, one band always comes to my mind: Too Close to Touch. This right here is nothing more than The Word Alive ripping them off bit by bit. Don’t tell me you can’t hear a track like “Burning Your World Down” and not think it’s a haphazardly-written
Haven’t Been Myself B-side, and that’s one of the better songs on this display of averageness that would’ve been better off in the bargain bin of your local Walmart trash can--er, I mean, discount CD section. While nothing here is inherently
awful, it’s very telling that Telle Smith refuses to accept the grim reality that, maybe his newer efforts aren’t as inspired as he thinks they are. A couple tracks may stand out, but only by a slim margin. Everything else is nothing more than just Too Close to Touch-lite. I may have been more forgiving in the past, with records like
Violent Noise, but at least those albums bothered to pretend to give a fuck about artistic integrity. This is soulless, banal, yet otherwise inoffensive when you forget about the band The Word Alive is shamelessly aping.
