Review Summary: The debut EP from CherryFix, it contains some good ideas and a lot of room for improvement.
Modern rock is a very tricky genre to judge. There’s not much left that modern rock can accomplish, so the scene seems to have been very content to produce bands that make the listener go, “Wait...I could have sworn I heard this 5 years ago.” Which isn’t that far from the truth. Modern rock is notorious for recycling song structures and vocal stylings. Take, for example, modern rock’s newest breakout Hinder. I remember seeing them promoted to death just a few days ago, actually. They were on in Best Buy, they were on the radio, they had a guest spot on Conan. I listened, and came to the conclusion that, yeah, I’ve DEFINITELY heard this before.
Now, as many know, I have a soft spot for female singers. I’ll tend to be more forgiving to a band with a good female singer than, say, the same band with a dude fronting it. Which, in turn, is probably the deciding factor in why I picked up the point of this review, Logic Won’t Help You, an EP by a band named CherryFix. They were playing in FYE. Not as playing over the PA system. No, they physically played a show on the floor of FYE. I thought they were decent enough to warrant my purchase. That, and the EP was only 5 bucks. I figured, what the hell, I’ll support them.
A few listens (the EP rounds out under 20 minutes) have left me with 2 feelings: it’s catchy, and I’ve heard it before. Unfortunately for the group, the catchiness factor wears off, and the listener is left with bland riffing and vocal lines that you have DEFINITELY heard before. The band channels old school Evanescence (you know, the one before they forgot how to write music, with all the electronic influences) better than any other group I’ve heard, I’ll give them that. I think they use guitar synths; there were synths playing along with them while they were playing, but there was no keyboardist. Could have been loops, for all I know. Whatever. The point is, the synths DO work out sometimes in favor for the band. They add a little bit more flavor.
Runnin’ On Empty starts off the album in grand fashion, with some synth work that soon breaks into familiar territory. The chorus is probably the saving point of the song. You’ve heard that familiar sound of “blasting” (as I like to call it) chords, with stop start patterns. For some inexplicable reason, though, CherryFix makes it work. The song’s length works well for it too; it’s under 3 minutes long, which lets the song deliver its message before it bores you. Undoubtedly the album's best track.
Fall Out also starts in the same fashion, with a fade in. Now, this one is very reminiscent of an electro track in the verse, complete with cheesy synth minor scale runs. Again, the chorus is very good; high energy, catchy, everything a modern rock chorus should be.
Sadly, those are the high points of this EP. The remaining three tracks don’t offer anything new, whether from this band or modern rock in general.
Take You Down attempts to recreate the feel of
Fall Out, but falls flat on its face. It just ends up coming out forced, although I will give credit for the chorus (yet again). The vocal lines are kinda cool.
Just Another Idiot is just another modern rock song, and not a catchy one at that. Which leaves no redeeming factor for it.
Spotless is the modern rock album’s token ballad, all pomp and no feel. Sure, there’s “emotion” there, but it’s simulated. It’s almost like yet another synth effect they threw in there. It lacks that heartfelt feeling that many other artists can pour into their music. The other songs do have some emotion, but this one just feels fake.
All in all, this band does have some potential. If they work at it a bit more, they could have a very good thing going for them. As such now, they have some good ideas. They can write a catchy tune when need be, but they lack the ability to create a whole album. They need to develop their own style. This album has hints of such, but it also has the most generic form of modern rock on it as well. It’s just an average EP from a band that could be much more. And I do hope they will be.
