Gregory Robson
07/14/08, 03:14 PM
Forget Paris - Spanish Beaches
Record Label: None
Release Date: January 2, 2007
Forget Paris is an often overlooked and vastly underrated Billy Crystal film. It's also the name of an incredibly average pop-punk band from Connecticut. On their five song EP Spanish Beaches, the boys start things off in fine fashion with the blistering should-be single, "General Arnold, Your Autography Please," in which singer Tyler Coheni projects, "This battlefield feels like home." For every band that tries its hand at pop-punk, it always comes down to one question: How effective is the vocalist? In the case of Forget Paris and the aforementioned song, the answer is that he is in fact highly-effective, and it's the vocals and radio-friendly sound that starts the disc on a most positive note. Unfortunately, it's one of the last positive notes on the disc.
Second song "Starstruck in Jupiter" benefits from good verse structure and a decent melody but isn't nearly as polished as the opener. Listeners want songs that beg them for repeat listens, and "Starstruck in Jupiter" is not one of them. Third song "Tonight's Fight: The Windy City vs. The Constitution State" tries its hand at a dance beat, but then the verses start and the song segues into boring, generic pop-punk. The song is as forgettable as can be, even as Ferrari sings lines like: "From Hartford to Seattle, you were the best I'll ever have / From Hartford to Seattle, I am the best you'll ever have / It's harder in the nighttime / I miss the smell of perfume on my sheets."
The next two songs are acoustic affairs that show the band in its infancy when it was only vocalist Cohen and Adam Ferrari. While the band deserves kudos for trying to change the vibe of the disc and doing something different, only one of the two acoustic song are worth anything. Closing song "Heartaches and Hangovers" is a well-written song about looking back at past love and facing the agony.
The Connecticut quartet certainly deserves a thumbs down for the verbose song titles. Seriously, when is this trend going to end? While it's not fair to point to Forget Paris as the only offender, it isn't exactly an askew point. Bands like Forget Paris are the future of rock radio and one would hope the band would take their music seriously. How can a listener expect to take a band seriously with song titles like, "General Arnold, Your Autograph Please"? The only hope is that the band, most of which are still finishing college, mature a bit, ditch the tasteless tunes with stupid titles and come back to the music with a more serious approach.
Aside from the powder keg single, Forget Paris doesn't do much to differentiate themselves from the masses and are fortunate that the above-average vocals push them slightly ahead of all the other dime-a-dozen youthful pop-punk startups. For all its flaws, there are enough flashes of brilliance and glimmers of promise on Spanish Beaches to vault the band onto opening bills and possibly even a headlining tour (I'd give them a few years before that happens though). While Spanish Beaches has its drawbacks, it's still slightly engaging, decently written and mildly charismatic.
Return to Arms, Punchline, amateur pop punk
myspace.com/forgetparis (http://www.myspace.com/forgetparis)
Record Label: None
Release Date: January 2, 2007
Forget Paris is an often overlooked and vastly underrated Billy Crystal film. It's also the name of an incredibly average pop-punk band from Connecticut. On their five song EP Spanish Beaches, the boys start things off in fine fashion with the blistering should-be single, "General Arnold, Your Autography Please," in which singer Tyler Coheni projects, "This battlefield feels like home." For every band that tries its hand at pop-punk, it always comes down to one question: How effective is the vocalist? In the case of Forget Paris and the aforementioned song, the answer is that he is in fact highly-effective, and it's the vocals and radio-friendly sound that starts the disc on a most positive note. Unfortunately, it's one of the last positive notes on the disc.
Second song "Starstruck in Jupiter" benefits from good verse structure and a decent melody but isn't nearly as polished as the opener. Listeners want songs that beg them for repeat listens, and "Starstruck in Jupiter" is not one of them. Third song "Tonight's Fight: The Windy City vs. The Constitution State" tries its hand at a dance beat, but then the verses start and the song segues into boring, generic pop-punk. The song is as forgettable as can be, even as Ferrari sings lines like: "From Hartford to Seattle, you were the best I'll ever have / From Hartford to Seattle, I am the best you'll ever have / It's harder in the nighttime / I miss the smell of perfume on my sheets."
The next two songs are acoustic affairs that show the band in its infancy when it was only vocalist Cohen and Adam Ferrari. While the band deserves kudos for trying to change the vibe of the disc and doing something different, only one of the two acoustic song are worth anything. Closing song "Heartaches and Hangovers" is a well-written song about looking back at past love and facing the agony.
The Connecticut quartet certainly deserves a thumbs down for the verbose song titles. Seriously, when is this trend going to end? While it's not fair to point to Forget Paris as the only offender, it isn't exactly an askew point. Bands like Forget Paris are the future of rock radio and one would hope the band would take their music seriously. How can a listener expect to take a band seriously with song titles like, "General Arnold, Your Autograph Please"? The only hope is that the band, most of which are still finishing college, mature a bit, ditch the tasteless tunes with stupid titles and come back to the music with a more serious approach.
Aside from the powder keg single, Forget Paris doesn't do much to differentiate themselves from the masses and are fortunate that the above-average vocals push them slightly ahead of all the other dime-a-dozen youthful pop-punk startups. For all its flaws, there are enough flashes of brilliance and glimmers of promise on Spanish Beaches to vault the band onto opening bills and possibly even a headlining tour (I'd give them a few years before that happens though). While Spanish Beaches has its drawbacks, it's still slightly engaging, decently written and mildly charismatic.
Return to Arms, Punchline, amateur pop punk
myspace.com/forgetparis (http://www.myspace.com/forgetparis)