Review Summary: No steps forward, 2 steps back.
Never Shout Never started simply as Christofer Drew Ingle alone playing acoustic pop songs back in 2007. He proceeded to gain his fame through Myspace, and released The Yippee EP. A couple of EP's later in 2010, Never Shout Never released it's first album, What Is Love? The album received mostly poor reviews due to Christofer's lack of writing lyrics that weren't about the same thing that they had been for the past 3 years. The same year he released Harmony. More warmly received than What Is Love?, this album showed more instrumentation and full band performances than past releases. In 2011 Never Shout Never became 3 members and released Time Travel. The album was a massive step forward for Christofer Drew in the songwriting and musical categories, and for some forged him a new identity. Now in 2012, Indigo has been released as the newest outing by Never Shout Never.
The first track 'Magic', is the best song Never Shout Never has ever done. Tapping more of a psychedelic feel, the song is catchy, fun, and entertaining. The music isn't too exciting, but not so simple to a degree of boring. The song just works, and sets a good pace to start the album with. Sadly though the next song 'All Mine' is a shift in pace for the juvenile. The lyrics are pretty bad, and sound like something he'd write back in his Myspace days. 'Life Goes On' was the first song released for the album, and is an extremely boring one at that. The song never feels like it picks up, and is just stuck in the same spot. The chorus of repeating "life goes on" four times is un-original and not exciting. 'Lust' is a foray into an awkward spot on the album. The song just feels really out of place, and Christofer's vocal performance is pretty awful.
'California Slang' represents an entirely new direction for the band. A Country/Rock hybrid, the song succeeds in being quite entertaining despite the lyrics being sub-par. Usually I don't like Country music, but the southern twang is charming in this song. Next we have 'The Wrong Side of Town'. Any hope for the album that came from the last song is gone, as it's back to boring and un-originality with this song. The last song 'Hazel Eyes' is one that sums up the rest of the album, and that is that it's not a great listen at all. With more awkward vocals that feel like they don't even belong to the music, this song is a testament to exactly what's wrong with the album.
Never Shout Never have managed to take 2 steps back, and no steps forward with this release. The song 'Magic' showed a lot of promise that ends up being squandered by an album that leaves you wondering if the band gave it their all on it. The lyrics are more juvenile then they've been in years, and although the music is maybe a small improvement, it can't save the album from the mostly awful lyrics and awkward delivery of their front man.
