Further Seems Forever is the perfect title for this band that epitomizes both the best and the worst of this thing they're starting to call Emo. Musically the band has it's moments, but they relentlessly insist on making disconcerting musical shifts, unnecessary syncopated breaks that are just clever for the sake of clever. And all this unnatural and awkward herky-jerky transition only serves to distract the listener rather than draw them in.

It's probably a truism that bashing on Chris Carraba never helped anybody get laid and I should point out that his lyrics are the best thing about this record. Of course he is true to the Emo beast and thus much of his singing has that overwrought desperation that was fashionable when Morrissey and Robert Smith were it's chief purveyors. And, for his part, Carraba has become something of a bona-fide protégé of the former - but Chris rarely knows when to pull back on the reigns and allow a nice melody to sink in, before he starts jerking it around.

Carraba indeed possesses the greater share of the bands talent, he has a fine singing voice and shows alot of promise as a lyricist. For all it's forced immediacy and longing and angst some nice lines emerge: "And sometimes we don't say a thing for a long while / And the ships off shore hold stories that we'd make / And sometimes we are held at bay by these miles / But less of you is more than I can take." Though there are a few lyrics that are vague, and rhymes are occasionally forced, overall the lyrics are intriguing, and songs are consistent to one theme within themselves.

Living in a town where people spend the winter I could relate to the lyrics in "Snowbirds and Townies" which deals with the frustration over the loss of a relationship: "And longing after spring has sprung / And they fly north when winter's done / And we get burned in summer's sun." There are other nice phrases, but too often they are lost in all the broken-hearted bluster of this Emo business.

FSF does have potential. Every member of the band is very good and capable of making fantastic music. One day I'm sure someone in this band will make a real name for themselves. It's just a matter of taking the time and having the patience to writing songs that hook the listener with melody and smart turns of phrase instead of dragging them around by the scruff of their neck. Listening to a little more Beatles and Led Zeppelin would do them some good, or for that matter Fugazi or Sunny Day Real Estate.