Julia Conny
06/27/07, 07:39 AM
My American Heart – Hiding Inside The Horrible Weather
Record Label: Warcon Entertainment
Release Date: June 26, 2007
Bred from a San Diego battle of the bands and raised by Purevolume, Asian Sensation My American Heart has been piggybacking their own buzz since 2004’s self-titled and self-released My American Heart. But with the buzz comes the backlash - usually in the form of a debut album on a becoming record deal.
Dolled up with the Warcon rouge, The Meaning In The Makeup operates on a rock overload that doesn’t deliver except in a streamlined pattern. It doesn’t promise much of a future for MAH, and most thought the band’s next album would rinse, repeat and ride the guardrail of similar regurgitation. Like Hawthorne Heights or Silverstein or any band still walloping their voice boxes, there is very little on Makeup that could possibly lead listeners in a more hopeful direction. Like one colossal and catchy emotional power rock song, those 14 tracks are left in the ruins of a threadbare screamo genre.
Junior year affair Hiding Inside The Horrible Weather comes out with a jolt, a kick and a bombshell opener, “Boys Grab Your Guns.” A curious but fresh start, it takes a small leap of faith in the rest of the album. MAH have since dropped the vocal gargling, repositioned towards catchier, less-downtrodden guitar flair and released an album that might, just might, make up for Makeup. The best track on the album is “Speak Low If You Speak Love” because Larry Soliman initiates himself into his own bar mitvah. MAH has always received flack for their young ages and even younger voices, but Horrible Weather should stick it to the haters. Soliman growls punchlines like a hungry and sexy beast and punctuates with zip like I said those goddamn kids got nothing on me! This is where MAH takes flight, and all of the faster songs on the album from then on are invested with either a great piece of guitar melody or a defined and hopping backbeat – and sometimes both.
For clarification, Horrible Weather is not as simple as a sound reinvention. MAH is still an emotional rock outflow and Soliman is still an undersized firecracker, but Makeup didn’t even try to stab at a slower track (except the title track, but that’s only 50 seconds long). Horrible Weather gives it three full passes – the lyrically centered “Tired & Uninspired,” the soulful “Dangerous,” and the acoustic, whistling and twanging “All My Friends.” The three tracks don’t own up to the ease of faster twists like “Moving On” or the video single “The Shake (Awful Feeling),” but they aren’t shooting banks. Rounding off the album, “All My Friends,” the best of the three, helps clothe Horrible Weather in a complete and more variable outfit.
Horrible Weather is a comeback of sorts. Lyrical matter has never been MAH strong suit, and the percussion is barely at a level of experience that fits along with the upbeat of the rest of the album. Rehashing first period MAH is a great way to test the success of this album because it’s so much better. And whilst pre-label MAH has its hardcore fans (me being one, I admit), terms like “discovering themselves” and “growing into their own skins” are apt. Horrible Weather does what it wants and well, and from the mishaps of Makeup, it appears as though MAH has escaped the chomping jaws of sophomore slumps, dead-end record deals, and the hungry giant of current rock music.
"All My Friends" and "Speak Low If You Speak Love"
Record Label: Warcon Entertainment
Release Date: June 26, 2007
Bred from a San Diego battle of the bands and raised by Purevolume, Asian Sensation My American Heart has been piggybacking their own buzz since 2004’s self-titled and self-released My American Heart. But with the buzz comes the backlash - usually in the form of a debut album on a becoming record deal.
Dolled up with the Warcon rouge, The Meaning In The Makeup operates on a rock overload that doesn’t deliver except in a streamlined pattern. It doesn’t promise much of a future for MAH, and most thought the band’s next album would rinse, repeat and ride the guardrail of similar regurgitation. Like Hawthorne Heights or Silverstein or any band still walloping their voice boxes, there is very little on Makeup that could possibly lead listeners in a more hopeful direction. Like one colossal and catchy emotional power rock song, those 14 tracks are left in the ruins of a threadbare screamo genre.
Junior year affair Hiding Inside The Horrible Weather comes out with a jolt, a kick and a bombshell opener, “Boys Grab Your Guns.” A curious but fresh start, it takes a small leap of faith in the rest of the album. MAH have since dropped the vocal gargling, repositioned towards catchier, less-downtrodden guitar flair and released an album that might, just might, make up for Makeup. The best track on the album is “Speak Low If You Speak Love” because Larry Soliman initiates himself into his own bar mitvah. MAH has always received flack for their young ages and even younger voices, but Horrible Weather should stick it to the haters. Soliman growls punchlines like a hungry and sexy beast and punctuates with zip like I said those goddamn kids got nothing on me! This is where MAH takes flight, and all of the faster songs on the album from then on are invested with either a great piece of guitar melody or a defined and hopping backbeat – and sometimes both.
For clarification, Horrible Weather is not as simple as a sound reinvention. MAH is still an emotional rock outflow and Soliman is still an undersized firecracker, but Makeup didn’t even try to stab at a slower track (except the title track, but that’s only 50 seconds long). Horrible Weather gives it three full passes – the lyrically centered “Tired & Uninspired,” the soulful “Dangerous,” and the acoustic, whistling and twanging “All My Friends.” The three tracks don’t own up to the ease of faster twists like “Moving On” or the video single “The Shake (Awful Feeling),” but they aren’t shooting banks. Rounding off the album, “All My Friends,” the best of the three, helps clothe Horrible Weather in a complete and more variable outfit.
Horrible Weather is a comeback of sorts. Lyrical matter has never been MAH strong suit, and the percussion is barely at a level of experience that fits along with the upbeat of the rest of the album. Rehashing first period MAH is a great way to test the success of this album because it’s so much better. And whilst pre-label MAH has its hardcore fans (me being one, I admit), terms like “discovering themselves” and “growing into their own skins” are apt. Horrible Weather does what it wants and well, and from the mishaps of Makeup, it appears as though MAH has escaped the chomping jaws of sophomore slumps, dead-end record deals, and the hungry giant of current rock music.
"All My Friends" and "Speak Low If You Speak Love"