Broadway - Kingdoms

[Dystroxia]

Broadway - Kingdoms
Record Label: Uprising Records
Release Date: July 7, 2009

I have a question to ask all the readers of this review: can you sum up Broadway (the band, of course) in a sentence? I can. Actually, I can do it in one word: amazing. Their debut album, Kingdoms, grabbed my attention on last.fm, and I knew I would love this band. I recommend you at least give this a listen, but for the buyers, dive in and buy this right now. Stop reading this review and buy it now.

The first song is not exactly special, but there are some standout tracks on the album that make it special. For example, "Last Saturday" is a great song, with the chorus going, "Lonely hearts / Lose the battle every time / Kingdoms start / With the closest of friends / Maybe I will write someday / About how you all helped me". That, to me, is extremely catchy, and it hooked me on to the rest of the album. The band must have done something incredible to get Jonny Craig and Craig Owens to be guest vocalists on two separate songs. Craig is on "Don't Jump the Shark Before You Save the Whale", a phenomenal song. Owens appears in "Same Thing We Do Everyday Pinky", a great song with Owens singing and screaming his little heart out. "We are Paramount" is the best track on the album, and it's especially for the ones looking for a more hardcore sound on the album. Camacho's screams and clean vocals, along with the chorus, can't possibly get better than this. Another incredible song is "You Bring the Thunder, I'll Bring the Lightning" which takes in all of the band's talent and fuses it into this song. "AWOL" is an attempt at a piano ballad and is decent as best.

Broadway is a band that is definitely not known enough. If they were famous, do you honestly know how insanely popular they could be? Hopefully the Florida band never drops a band member, especially the amazing vocalist. Few bands can actually pull off a high vocal range like Camacho can. Camacho does both screams and clean vocals, which are both outstanding. He can also perform every song live perfectly, mainly due to the high vocal range, which can go light years higher than Owens, so there's no need to worry about him disappointing live. The lyrics are also great, because they're not cheesy and they're easy to relate to. Kingdoms is an album that you can listen to over and over again, no matter how old you or the album are. If you ever so happen to run into it, maybe at Best Buy or Target, go ahead and pick it up, but never put it down. Seriously, it's that great. If you don't like this album, then you're not a true post-hardcore fanatic. Broadway is on the top of the pack, and hopefully they don't ever fall down to the bottom.

post-hardcore in general; Chiodos; Protest the Hero; Saosin - Saosin

myspace.com/broadwayfl (http://www.myspace.com/broadwayfl)

Last Saturday; Don't Jump The Shark Before You SaveThe Whale; We Are Paramount; You Bring The Thunder, I'll Bring The Lightning

[superBMRuth]

score is way to high and you obviously don't have that wide of a music scope, but I love this album. it borrows heavily from the names in your RIYL, but it comes off more sincere than most copy-cat bands. these guys play my city a lot, there really nice, sweet dudes for the most part and i always enjoy their sets and try to buy some sort of merch to help out.

[Arizen]

their stage performance is very very entertaining but as far as vocals live...good scream... wasn't to fond of clean vocals (maybe an off day but jesus alot of flat notes)...but pretty good CD for this genre.

[NateFoundGlory]

I've been meaning to look into this cd. Review helped a bit.

[danawalker]

one of my favorite releases of the year, not a bad track. but seriously, WORST lyrics ever. I'd give it a 1 for effort. Just god-awful elementary level "poetry." It sucks they are so bad, but the rest of this record is honestly so good I can actually let it slide.

[Andrew33]

Eh, not that good. I liked it- felt too much like things I've heard before. On a side note, I'm pretty sure that Johnny Craig and Craig Owens are separate dudes; check into the guest vocals again, you mixed 'em up a bit. Also, please write more about the album and less about how we should get it. Good job though, take this only as constructive criticism! =)

[shawnPLAGUES]

Love this album, seen them twice.

And to that note about hoping that none of their band members leave, their bassist Gabe left awhile ago, haha.

There is also a little confusion on the guest vocals bit. You refer to both of them as "Craig", but not Jonny/Craig or Craig/Owens. This could be confusing to some.

Other than that, solid review.

[kaduck2007]

Love the album. Review was decent. Seemed a lot more like a praise though then a review, but you did give some good insight on a couple of the tracks. Nice work.

[tottivillarossi]

It's not an 89% album.

[Alex1410]

redeeming a monster is a tune. but 89%?

[denissuxx]

Too informal, too high rating.

[sweepthenation]

Great album, but idk what the fuck you are talking about, its pretty easy to hear Craig and Craig

[Dirge07]

Decent review. It's definitely one of my favorite albums of '09, but I kind of agree with everyone else the rating is a tad bit high. Played with these guys a few times; great dudes and definitely put on a good, entertaining live show :)

[tyramail]

i love this album, but that is a pretty high score. and i think you mixed up the part with jonny craig and craig owens a bit.

[KaneFails]

I disagree with a lot of what is said in this review. First, it's incredibly easy to distinguish Jonny Craig and Craig Owens from Misha Camacho. Owens tends to feature more falsetto in his guest spot and Craig features more vobratto, along with his famed use of heat, while Camacho, as you stated, is higher pitched. I also feel both singers outshine Camacho on their tracks due to their great performances.

Second, I don't find the lyrics to be as great as you say, although they are accessible and easy to relate to. I just don't them to be very repeatable, or quotable. To me, Broadway's lyrics simply come off as something a high school student would write for an English assignment. However, I will give them credit for not having all of them about girls, like a lot of "Screamo" and "Post-hardcore" bands are doing now. Although, some bands pull it off extremely well. My prime example for this is the band La Dispute. I strongly recommend you listen to their album: Somewhere At the Bottom of the River Between Vegas and Altair. But, that's irrelevant.

I feel you're giving the album in general more praise then it deserves. Now, I will agree that Kingdoms is a good album, but I will never say it's an amazing album, because it isn't. Although songs like "We Are Paramount" and "You Gotta Love That Southern Charm" are in fact great, songs like "Meg Ryan Would Play You in the Movie" and "The Prom Queen Has No Friends" do nothing but hurt the album with how boring and skippable each song is. Thus, you are left with a hit-and-miss album.

Speaking of "Southern Charm", I find it strange how it wasn't even given a mention on this review. The guitar solo intro sucks you into the song, leaving you with Misha's vocals for a brief verse before the fist-pumping chorus, and thus having your attention for the rest of the song, and having you banging your head and screaming along by the end of the song. Also, the raw passion of "AWOL" in this song appears to be greatly underestimated for some reason. For that song, I find the ballad is one of the best songs on the album due to the outstanding vocal performances by both Misha and the other singer, who to this day I'm unaware of who is singing, but he is no doubt a great singer. "You Bring the Thunder", sadly, isn't as incredible as you call it. Although it's a fist-pumping anthem about rejecting the false icons in music, it isn't really memorable besides Misha's performance.

Overall, Broadway are a band that are rising, and they're rising at an exceedingly fast rate. There is no doubt in my mind that by album two, they will be on the same level of fame as the front-runners of scenecore (A Skylit Drive, Chiodos, blessthefall, Emarosa, et cetera).

Oh, and inb4 tl;dr.

[i_was_a_lid]

This is a solid record but it is maybe a 70%. I really enjoy most of the songs but as people have stated previous the lyrics suck. There is still something about the band that makes them stand out from the rest of the blah blah scene (don't know what though).

[KaneFails]

This is a solid record but it is maybe a 70%. I really enjoy most of the songs but as people have stated previous the lyrics suck. There is still something about the band that makes them stand out from the rest of the blah blah scene (don't know what though).
I'm pretty certain it's Misha's vocals.

[icynova]

Love this band and this record. I can't wait to see what they do next.

Thank you for your review, the overall score was a little high (and the review came off somewhat fanboy/girl-ish) but it's nice to see other people excited about this band.

[symbiote28]

i fucking love this record.

[yayitsjoe]

first sentence of second paragraph makes no sense.

[Dystroxia]

I'm sorry, this is my first review.

So I gave it 5% higher than the other review, so go and bash that one, too.

[Dystroxia]

Sorry, 6%.

[Dystroxia]

I disagree with a lot of what is said in this review. First, it's incredibly easy to distinguish Jonny Craig and Craig Owens from Misha Camacho. Owens tends to feature more falsetto in his guest spot and Craig features more vobratto, along with his famed use of heat, while Camacho, as you stated, is higher pitched. I also feel both singers outshine Camacho on their tracks due to their great performances.

Second, I don't find the lyrics to be as great as you say, although they are accessible and easy to relate to. I just don't them to be very repeatable, or quotable. To me, Broadway's lyrics simply come off as something a high school student would write for an English assignment. However, I will give them credit for not having all of them about girls, like a lot of "Screamo" and "Post-hardcore" bands are doing now. Although, some bands pull it off extremely well. My prime example for this is the band La Dispute. I strongly recommend you listen to their album: Somewhere At the Bottom of the River Between Vegas and Altair. But, that's irrelevant.

I feel you're giving the album in general more praise then it deserves. Now, I will agree that Kingdoms is a good album, but I will never say it's an amazing album, because it isn't. Although songs like "We Are Paramount" and "You Gotta Love That Southern Charm" are in fact great, songs like "Meg Ryan Would Play You in the Movie" and "The Prom Queen Has No Friends" do nothing but hurt the album with how boring and skippable each song is. Thus, you are left with a hit-and-miss album.

Speaking of "Southern Charm", I find it strange how it wasn't even given a mention on this review. The guitar solo intro sucks you into the song, leaving you with Misha's vocals for a brief verse before the fist-pumping chorus, and thus having your attention for the rest of the song, and having you banging your head and screaming along by the end of the song. Also, the raw passion of "AWOL" in this song appears to be greatly underestimated for some reason. For that song, I find the ballad is one of the best songs on the album due to the outstanding vocal performances by both Misha and the other singer, who to this day I'm unaware of who is singing, but he is no doubt a great singer. "You Bring the Thunder", sadly, isn't as incredible as you call it. Although it's a fist-pumping anthem about rejecting the false icons in music, it isn't really memorable besides Misha's performance.

Overall, Broadway are a band that are rising, and they're rising at an exceedingly fast rate. There is no doubt in my mind that by album two, they will be on the same level of fame as the front-runners of scenecore (A Skylit Drive, Chiodos, blessthefall, Emarosa, et cetera).

Oh, and inb4 tl;dr.
Go write a review.

Seriously, you have enough info.

But um, scenecore? Really?

[KaneFails]

Go write a review.

Seriously, you have enough info.

But um, scenecore? Really?
Haha. Thanks. I appreciate the compliment.

And yes, I did just use the term "Scenecore". At least, that's what I like to call the brand of Post-Hardcore/Screamo that's so popular today. Sure, it may seem like another ridiculous subgenre, but I can't help but find it appropriate. Besides, I believe that bands such as Bear vs. Shark, Jawbox, Trophy Scars and La Dispute fit the definition of Post-hardcore than the bands I mentioned in my wall-of-text.

[Richard Maxim]

Too informal, too high rating.
I agree with the too infomal but I always see you going around disagreeing with everyone.

[Dystroxia]

Oh, and to all:

I write this review as my opinion, not yours.

[denissuxx]

I agree with the too infomal but I always see you going around disagreeing with everyone.
I like this album -- it's not a 89% by no means though

[HometownHero]

Oh, and to all:

I write this review as my opinion, not yours.
Your opinion sucks. Just sayin'

[colorfast]

I'm pretty certain it's Misha's vocals.

I believe I heard their drummer say their tour manager or merch guy (one or the other) lended their vocals for the end of the song. Can't remember exactly though.

[Dystroxia]

Your opinion sucks. Just sayin'
And saying my opinion sucks is an opinion.

Just sayin'

[xapplexpiex]

IMO these guys are among the best in this scream/sing/scream genre. Good cd.

[Dystroxia]

IMO these guys are among the best in this scream/sing/scream genre. Good cd.
Agreed

[Richard Maxim]

I like this album -- it's not a 89% by no means though
In it's genre, i think it could be considered that high. only in it's genre.

[denissuxx]

In it's genre, i think it could be considered that high. only in it's genre.
Disagree

[Dystroxia]

In it's genre, i think it could be considered that high. only in it's genre.
Agreed

[Richard Maxim]

Disagree

By in it's genre I'm also taking into account the other scene bands that play off the same demographic. This is one of the more credible bands.

[denissuxx]

By in it's genre I'm also taking into account the other scene bands that play off the same demographic. This is one of the more credible bands.
Yeah, they're more credible; but I'd give them 80% tops.

[Richard Maxim]

Yeah, they're more credible; but I'd give them 80% tops.
I agree, good call.

[cwhit412]

IMO these guys are among the best in this scream/sing/scream genre. Good cd.
They don't even scream that often. The vocals are great, and Jonny Craig's appearance is absolutely amazing.

[PureBlueSF]

This is definitely one of my favorite albums from 2009. The song with Jonny Craig is awesome.

[LifeIsMyJoke]

@KaneFails - You should have reviewed this album, that was an excellent first page comment.

I agree with what he said; you have scored the band far too highly for starters. There are two ways to look at the effect of Jonny Craig and Craig Owens on this album.

i) That, like the reviewer said, Broadway must have done something special to get them on the album.
ii) That the appearance and spectacular performances put in by those 2 outstanding vocalists undermine the frailties in Camacho's vocals, in terms of relativity.

I think it is a good album; perhaps a 7.5/10? The lyrics are fairly disappointing in my opinion, and I think they are too generic; adopting the poppy style of lyrics to suit the catchiness of the song, rather than containing much empathy and passion, which is what I believe post-hardcore music is about. It is a simplistic style of music used to amplify thoughts and emotions, and not confined to creating a sound which is structurally pleasing, yet lacking lyrical effectiveness... I believe this album has gone against this principle in the same manner the new BFMV album has.

This is just my opinion. Camacho is a good vocalist, with a predominant trend of high pitched singing many hardcore vocalists could only wish for. His screams are good on album; live performances from what I've seen and heard, are not that amazing, mostly in regards to clean vocals.

They may have the ability to become big, but I disagree with KaneFails saying that there "is no doubt in my mind that by album two, they will be on the same level of fame as the front-runners of scenecore" - they just are not everybody's cup of tea.

I will end this by saying I really like the band... But they are in no way "amazing" - just a solid post-hardcore band, with ability which, in my opinion, is not being fully utlised. I also wish to mention AWOL - in my opinion, this song brings to surface a lot of passion and feeling; and I will once again disagree with the reviewer that it is "decent at best" ... I believe it is the strongest track on the album, and my general taste in music is heavier as opposed to softer, so this is a big call.

Thanks.

[Dystroxia]

@KaneFails - You should have reviewed this album, that was an excellent first page comment.

I agree with what he said; you have scored the band far too highly for starters. There are two ways to look at the effect of Jonny Craig and Craig Owens on this album.

i) That, like the reviewer said, Broadway must have done something special to get them on the album.
ii) That the appearance and spectacular performances put in by those 2 outstanding vocalists undermine the frailties in Camacho's vocals, in terms of relativity.

I think it is a good album; perhaps a 7.5/10? The lyrics are fairly disappointing in my opinion, and I think they are too generic; adopting the poppy style of lyrics to suit the catchiness of the song, rather than containing much empathy and passion, which is what I believe post-hardcore music is about. It is a simplistic style of music used to amplify thoughts and emotions, and not confined to creating a sound which is structurally pleasing, yet lacking lyrical effectiveness... I believe this album has gone against this principle in the same manner the new BFMV album has.

This is just my opinion. Camacho is a good vocalist, with a predominant trend of high pitched singing many hardcore vocalists could only wish for. His screams are good on album; live performances from what I've seen and heard, are not that amazing, mostly in regards to clean vocals.

They may have the ability to become big, but I disagree with KaneFails saying that there "is no doubt in my mind that by album two, they will be on the same level of fame as the front-runners of scenecore" - they just are not everybody's cup of tea.

I will end this by saying I really like the band... But they are in no way "amazing" - just a solid post-hardcore band, with ability which, in my opinion, is not being fully utlised. I also wish to mention AWOL - in my opinion, this song brings to surface a lot of passion and feeling; and I will once again disagree with the reviewer that it is "decent at best" ... I believe it is the strongest track on the album, and my general taste in music is heavier as opposed to softer, so this is a big call.

Thanks.
Yes, the score was too high at first (it was 89% but I pushed it down to 84%)

As I think about it, their lyrics aren't as good as I wrote it in my review, but they're still decent in another way because it's not Drop Dead, Gorgeous or Asking Alexandria terrible.

Still, I like your opinion. Thanks for sharing it

[i_am_sexy]

i thought this was the catchiest album i have heard in a long time

[MichaelCarnahan]

I'm pretty certain it's Misha's vocals.
Completely agreed. He's an extremely talented vocalist, if he can get some better lyrics to sing just imagine his voice coupled with saying something meaningful/important.

[Amilleraz]

dig this album but rating is for sure high

[Kaku]

Since I am not a "lyrical" listener, lyrics aren't really that important to me. Well, maybe since I am not from an English-speaking country. :)
Still I'd agree, lyrics might not be as sophisticated, but like I said, I got no problem with that. Though I find myself questioning when i am hearing "Dear self, stop eating your own foot."

But what is speaking for Broadway is their instrumental music, if you could call it.
I mean just listen to the intro of "Gotta Love That Southern Charm" and you will be blown away.

Anyhow, it was/is one of the albums I really enjoy listening, which surfaced within last year.