Review Summary: Confused songwriting ruins a potentially decent release from this post-hardcore quintet.
So first off, I know track-by-track reviews are discouraged on this site, but due to the fact that this band cannot hold any sort of cohesion over the course of a song, (let alone an entire album) I feel perfectly justified in reviewing it in the same manner it seems to have been constructed. Just to clarify, I will only do full paragraphs on the standout tracks. But first, some overall thoughts on the band...
Vocalist Kendall Knepp is undoubtedly the band's greatest asset. His clean singing is solid, reminiscent of LoveHateHero with a hint of Silverstein. His screaming is actually rather excellent, bringing to mind Spencer Chamberlain's vocal work on "Define The Great Line."
Guitarists Josh and Mike Sommers seem to be the band's weakest link, both technically and creatively. They are held back both by their apparent lack of technical skill and their tendency to fall back on very uninspired riffs, strumming patterns, and harmonies. Oh god, the harmonies.
When a decent breakdown pattern does occasionally make an appearance, it is doubtless the work of drummer Jesse Hostetler, who bangs away dutifully at the skins, neither being much of an asset nor much of a liability. His work is unremarkable but solid throughout.
I think Burden Of A Day might have a bass player too, but multiple listens leave me unable to confirm or deny this. Anyway, on to the songs.
Blessed Be Our Ever After:
The title track is in fact more of an intro, and the lack of cohesion that plagues the rest of the songs is already made apparent. The song opens with pop-punk octave chords and semi melodic gang shouts that wouldn't be out of place in A Day To Remember's discography. However, it suddenly gives way to a rather cool The Devil Wears Prada-esque breakdown that unfortunately sounds completely out of place. This track also gives us the first taste of one of Burden Of A Day's other annoying habits; their inexplicable affinity for making guitar melodies exactly follow the vocal melodies they accompany. On paper, it doesn't seem so bad, but it comes off as amateurish and unimaginative, especially when overused like it is on this album.
Pt. 2 Sometimes They Do:
This song opens with frantic drums leading into a solid sing-scream verse. A very fun and catchy chorus follows, with utterly infectious shouts of "bang bang, he shot me dead" (Although the fact that these lyrics, which are the source of much of this section's catchiness, are shamelessly ripped off from FFTL's "Kiss Me I'm Contagious" does kind of detract from the experience.) This chorus is smoothly drawn out into a breakdown, that while generic has nothing specifically wrong with it, and is rather effective. A section of punky drumming with completely uninteresting guitar is randomly inserted here then, awkwardly transitioning into a catchy and well-executed ending.
Sorry Seacrest, It's Casey's Countdown:
This song opens with a simple but effective guitar part with screaming over it, segueing into a brief section with slick vocal harmonies. However, this is quickly taken over by a generic faux-metal guitar riff and a cringe-worthy guitar harmony that seems to have been written to be as awkward as possible, the first of many on the album. Thankfully this one ends quickly and transitions rather smoothly into a nice poppy chorus with a fun guitar lead, the brief pleasure of which is ruined by the exact same awkward guitar harmony from before, followed by the exact same transition into the exact same chorus. The song then comes to a very cheesy climax, with what seem to be slightly autotuned vocals and layered chants of "we stand together." A generic breakdown with a cool guitar lead follows, which is all well and good...until the breakdown is repeated without the lead that made it interesting to begin with; closing out this decent song with a massive anticlimax.
After hearing these two decent tracks, you could reasonably expect the rest of the album to follow similar form: Unremarkable but listenable and fun.
And you'd be wrong
Without getting into specifics, suffice it to say that the next five songs (not including instrumental interlude "Umbrellas") are a big blur of abysmal songwriting and a wealth of tremendously awkward transitions. While Burden Of A Day prove again and again that they are able to write parts that are cool taken on their own, they seem utterly unable to put them together in any order that makes sense or is remotely enjoyable. It's actually rather bizarre. It's as if they wrote a solid post-hardcore/pop-punk record, but then dropped it on the floor where it shattered into thousands of pieces. They then picked it up and tried to glue it back together the way it was. It stands to reason that it would be difficult to reassemble because so many of the parts sound pretty much exactly alike. We can only assume that the tracks that actually make sense are the ones that remained mostly intact. Joking aside, it's impossible to emphasize enough the lack of logical songwriting on these tracks, as well as on album closer "I'm Only Laughing On The Outside."
White Coats And Their Medicine:
This song starts off with a pleasant high-register guitar riff and a cool drum beat. This part is briefly ruined by the second guitar chugging away underneath and forcing the drums into a much more boring pattern. Thankfully, this section is cut off by a quick time change into a fast screamed section with a truly unremarkable guitar part. This transitions into a strong poppy chorus complete with a non-terrible guitar harmony, followed by what is undoubtedly the best breakdown of the album. (That isn't saying much, but trust me, it's a good one.) The breakdown ends with a drum and guitar fill...which is then repeated THREE TIMES. Really? It's a fill! Silly me, assuming that sort of thing was intended to transition from one part to another. Anyway, another cool section follows, with Knepp screaming "save our lives" over a thick mix of guitar harmony, before bringing back one of the boring guitar riffs from earlier in the song.
Then, in what is either a brilliant bit of self-parody or the single worst transition on an album full of them, the riff is drowned out by a bunch of extremely unpleasant and distracting guitar noise, which lifts to reveal a completely different section. (Did they seriously think they could just cover an utterly nonsensical transition with noise and expect no one to notice? It seems they are determined not just to assail the listener's ears, but also insult his intelligence as well.) The riff (which is extremely reminiscent of some of the guitar work on Emarosa's "This Is Your Way Out" is briefly interrupted by a bad breakdown, then returns to close out what is all in all a fairly decent track.
This confused, awkward mess of an album is ultimately not a good listen. This album consistently made me feel like I had severe ADHD; as if I were trying to walk across a room, but kept getting distracted by random shiny things. If you like poppy, straightforward post-hardcore, give tracks 2, 3, and 10 a spin. All in all though, I'd recommend that you stay away from this release unless you want to try and put this musical jigsaw puzzle together the right way this time.
