Amusement Parks On Fire - Road Eyes
Record Label: Filter (US)
Release Date: Septemer 14, 2010
Rock music is becoming a tricky profession. With as many self-professed critics out there as genuinely interested listeners, it's difficult to construct a brand of rock that will please the masses without dumbing yourselves down musically or lyrically. Amusement Parks on Fire straddle that line with ease on Road Eyes.
I have the tendency to be wordy when writing, but I'll spare you the time and keep it simple: listen to this record. Road Eyes takes the arena-sized ambitions of Anberlin, the melodic-shoegaze tendencies of Silversun Pickups, and sprinkles a good dose of Placebo-esque atmosphere all over. Vocalist Michael Feerick is almost a dead ringer for the Pickups' Brian Aubert on several tracks, and his vocals are the perfect compliment to the huge songs behind him. The title track opens the record by punching you between the eyes with a wall of hazy guitar riffs, and APOF rarely let their foot off the gas pedal from there on.
The one drawback to this record may be that the excellent production casts a big shadow over the instrumentation at times; but the fact remains, this is a massive, expansive rock album that sounds just as good blasting through your car speakers as it does seeping through headphones as you fall asleep. This is the sort of album that could kick Kings of Leon in the teeth and tower over of a lot of other modern rock radio clowns if there were any justice in the world. For now, enjoy this momentarily well-kept secret while you can.
this review was pretty enjoyable. what made you want to review this band? have you always been a fan? i dont know who this band are, but i just wanted to say something constructive: do you ever feel like you are just getting sucked down into a world of just pointless fucking rock music? Why wont people wake up and smell the decay in modern music. For every band that is unique (and there are basically about 2 per 500 bands), they just get fetishized and put on a pedasil until they become dilluted down. The only way bands can actually stay unique is if they absolutely deny everything about the music industry i.e. radiohead (later in their career), rage against the machine (not anymore). arctic monkeys have started their back turning. its wonderful.
this review was pretty enjoyable. what made you want to review this band? have you always been a fan? i dont know who this band are, but i just wanted to say something constructive: do you ever feel like you are just getting sucked down into a world of just pointless fucking rock music? Why wont people wake up and smell the decay in modern music. For every band that is unique (and there are basically about 2 per 500 bands), they just get fetishized and put on a pedasil until they become dilluted down. The only way bands can actually stay unique is if they absolutely deny everything about the music industry i.e. radiohead (later in their career), rage against the machine (not anymore). arctic monkeys have started their back turning. its wonderful.
And there is going to one hell of a discussion about which 2 bands are the unique ones . You're painting a pretty bleak picture of todays rock music. I agree there are very much out there that sounds alike, but there is also much that is good. If you're just going to listen to the unique bands, they too would start to suck pretty soon. We're perhaps not in a golden age of rock, but neither are we in the dark ages.
this review was pretty enjoyable. what made you want to review this band? have you always been a fan? i dont know who this band are, but i just wanted to say something constructive: do you ever feel like you are just getting sucked down into a world of just pointless fucking rock music? Why wont people wake up and smell the decay in modern music. For every band that is unique (and there are basically about 2 per 500 bands), they just get fetishized and put on a pedasil until they become dilluted down. The only way bands can actually stay unique is if they absolutely deny everything about the music industry i.e. radiohead (later in their career), rage against the machine (not anymore). arctic monkeys have started their back turning. its wonderful.
I don't really, no. I like a wide variety of music. My tastes actually lean more towards the poppy end of the spectrum, so records by The Format (and fun.), Tokyo Police Club, etc., keep my head bobbing when actual rock music blows.
I haven't always been a fan of this band, I basically just heard them for the first time recently. I hated their band name. I was really surprised by how powerful the music is though. I can't emphasize enough the way they work in the sounds of those 3 bands I mentioned: Silversun Pickups, Placebo, and Anberlin. I'm a fan of all 3. It's really interesting to hear.
this review was pretty enjoyable. what made you want to review this band? have you always been a fan? i dont know who this band are, but i just wanted to say something constructive: do you ever feel like you are just getting sucked down into a world of just pointless fucking rock music? Why wont people wake up and smell the decay in modern music. For every band that is unique (and there are basically about 2 per 500 bands), they just get fetishized and put on a pedasil until they become dilluted down. The only way bands can actually stay unique is if they absolutely deny everything about the music industry i.e. radiohead (later in their career), rage against the machine (not anymore). arctic monkeys have started their back turning. its wonderful.
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. You're painting a pretty bleak picture of todays rock music. I agree there are very much out there that sounds alike, but there is also much that is good. If you're just going to listen to the unique bands, they too would start to suck pretty soon. We're perhaps not in a golden age of rock, but neither are we in the dark ages.
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