Jeremy Aaron
06/20/08, 11:44 AM
Reggie and the Full Effect - Last Stop: Crappy Town
Record Label: Vagrant Records
Release Date: June 17, 2008
James Dewees, the former keyboardist for The Get Up Kids and drummer for Coalesce, has been releasing solo records under the moniker of Reggie and Full Effect for a decade now. The influence of participating in bands with such differing styles has carried over to his solo work. On the last record, Songs Not to Get Married To, listeners were treated to an electronic ballad ("Thanks For the Misery"), a riff-heavy shout out to Helmet ("The Fuck Stops Here"), and a Chromeo-meets-Silversun Pickups mash-up of beats and post-shoegaze guitar ("Love Reality"), all on consecutive tracks. Fans have come to expect that, with a Reggie and the Full Effect album, anything is possible. That's why it's surprising that Last Stop: Crappy Town sounds so singularly-minded.
After working with Ed Rose (Motion City Soundtrack, Limbeck, The Get Up Kids) for the first four albums, Dewees decided upon Sean Beavin (Nine Inch Nails, Marilyn Manson) to take over as producer on the new album. The result is a record that lacks the variety, energy and fun present on the first four discs. While the synths that have become a trademark of the band's sound are not gone completely, they sound like a mere afterthought. These songs are almost totally dominated by heavy guitars and Dewees' screaming vocals. While such vocals have been featured on each of the previous albums, they have never been the primary voice of Reggie and the Full Effect, as they seem to have become on this record.
It's troubling that, at 32-years of age, an age when most artists are showing maturity, Dewees essentially has resorted to making a generic screamo album. The vocals are not at all bad, but the screaming does nothing to set it apart from the sea of other practitioners in the genre. Also, the clean vocals no longer have the earnest tone that made his previous work so endearing, and instead sound more strident, in the vein of many of the current crop of modern rock radio bands.
The lyrics also represent a movement toward mainstream brooding blandness. While the band's past catalog is not all fun-and-games lyrically, they are at least catchy and fun in their own angst-filled, self-deprecating way. Even on the darker Songs Not to Get Married To, where the songs are more caustic, they are often humorously so. While not notably terrible, the lyrics on this record are, quite simply, not particularly memorable or noteworthy.
The same could be said for the music itself. Though capably played, nothing in any of these songs stands out and demands to be listened to again. It seems as though you've already heard these songs over and over again already.
Perhaps Dewees is trying to tell us something with the album's title. After ten years and five albums, this could be the last stop on the Reggie train; it certainly is crappy. If this album is any indication of where Reggie and the Full Effect might be headed in the future, putting an end to it now, before it gets any worse, would be just fine.
Lovehatehero, Scary Kids Scaring Kids, Funeral for a Friend
myspace.com/reggieandthefulleffect (http://www.myspace.com/reggieandthefulleffect)
Record Label: Vagrant Records
Release Date: June 17, 2008
James Dewees, the former keyboardist for The Get Up Kids and drummer for Coalesce, has been releasing solo records under the moniker of Reggie and Full Effect for a decade now. The influence of participating in bands with such differing styles has carried over to his solo work. On the last record, Songs Not to Get Married To, listeners were treated to an electronic ballad ("Thanks For the Misery"), a riff-heavy shout out to Helmet ("The Fuck Stops Here"), and a Chromeo-meets-Silversun Pickups mash-up of beats and post-shoegaze guitar ("Love Reality"), all on consecutive tracks. Fans have come to expect that, with a Reggie and the Full Effect album, anything is possible. That's why it's surprising that Last Stop: Crappy Town sounds so singularly-minded.
After working with Ed Rose (Motion City Soundtrack, Limbeck, The Get Up Kids) for the first four albums, Dewees decided upon Sean Beavin (Nine Inch Nails, Marilyn Manson) to take over as producer on the new album. The result is a record that lacks the variety, energy and fun present on the first four discs. While the synths that have become a trademark of the band's sound are not gone completely, they sound like a mere afterthought. These songs are almost totally dominated by heavy guitars and Dewees' screaming vocals. While such vocals have been featured on each of the previous albums, they have never been the primary voice of Reggie and the Full Effect, as they seem to have become on this record.
It's troubling that, at 32-years of age, an age when most artists are showing maturity, Dewees essentially has resorted to making a generic screamo album. The vocals are not at all bad, but the screaming does nothing to set it apart from the sea of other practitioners in the genre. Also, the clean vocals no longer have the earnest tone that made his previous work so endearing, and instead sound more strident, in the vein of many of the current crop of modern rock radio bands.
The lyrics also represent a movement toward mainstream brooding blandness. While the band's past catalog is not all fun-and-games lyrically, they are at least catchy and fun in their own angst-filled, self-deprecating way. Even on the darker Songs Not to Get Married To, where the songs are more caustic, they are often humorously so. While not notably terrible, the lyrics on this record are, quite simply, not particularly memorable or noteworthy.
The same could be said for the music itself. Though capably played, nothing in any of these songs stands out and demands to be listened to again. It seems as though you've already heard these songs over and over again already.
Perhaps Dewees is trying to tell us something with the album's title. After ten years and five albums, this could be the last stop on the Reggie train; it certainly is crappy. If this album is any indication of where Reggie and the Full Effect might be headed in the future, putting an end to it now, before it gets any worse, would be just fine.
Lovehatehero, Scary Kids Scaring Kids, Funeral for a Friend
myspace.com/reggieandthefulleffect (http://www.myspace.com/reggieandthefulleffect)