Rod
The Story Changes Every Day
»
Rod
The Story Changes Every Day
Glue Factory, 2000
RiYL: Blink 182, Green Day, Offspring |
Rod is a retread of Blink 182, Green Day, and every other pop band with punk influences. The songs are not all that bad, they are just boring and follow the punk formula way too closely. It is easy to anticipate where the songs are going because we have heard it all before from more talented bands. This sort of disc reminds me of the end of the hair band days, when every band was doing the same thing.
Even when lead singer Mark McMillon sings the first line of S.O.S, "Bombarded, defeated, I'm worked up and feeling inadequate and obsolete and nothing good at all," he fails to sell it. The angst is not believable, and the emotions seem contrived. Most of the songs deal with lost love, lost youth and disillusionment, but the band fails to get to the depth of these emotions. They also forget that we the listener need to relate to the emotions in the song.
On "Heart of it All," Rod does its best Rush impression with an instrumental that falls flat on its face because there is nothing remarkable about what they are playing. Instrumentals are dangerous ground, and Rod steps right on the pretentious land mine. Rod are not great musicians and the song goes nowhere. One gets the feeling that they wrote the song, but forgot to write the words.
The one positive is that the band deals with some cliché topics, and they handle it well generally shying away from overly cheesy lyrics. Musicians have made a living writing about first love, and Rod takes it for all it is worth. Unfortunately, they only rehash what we already know.
KEVIN MAURER |