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"A Collection of Short Stories" by Houston Calls (2005)

"A Collection of Short Stories" by Houston Calls

Artist:

Houston Calls

Album:

A Collection of Short Stories

Released In:

2005

Reviewed By:

Doug Radunich

Reviewed On:

Wed May 17th, 2006

Grade:

2.5

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Although the younger crowd will probably love this album, this is some of the blandest, peppiest, poppiest, pop-punk mixed with the occasional synthesizer that I've ever heard. To make matters worse, the singer sounds like a terribly annoying version of the singer from Face to Face. Judging by their youthful sound, I'm sure this is another one of those bands that owes a lot of their success to their Myspace popularity. While listening to the first few songs, I couldn't believe how bland and unoriginal these guys sounded. Then again, their target audience probably isn't overly-critical "old" guys like me in their early 20s. It wasn't until the piano-laced ballad, "Amtrak is for Lovers" halfway through the album that I finally found a song that stood out in any kind of approximation of quality or originality. The other few songs I enjoyed were "One More Won't Hurt" and "The Better Part of Valor" because of their catchy piano-driven sounds reminiscent of Reggie and the Full Effect or the Anniversary. I could have enjoyed "A Line in the Sand," which started off as a ballad before shooting into the same old boring pop-punk formula, as well as "A Pen and a Piece of Mind," which started off catchy but went straight downhill once the singer joined in. All the other songs were pretty forgettable and somewhat cheesy. Younger emo kids, adolescent girls, and those obsessed with discovering and liking every band found on Myspace (because a band is automatically cool if they're on Myspace, right?) will be sure to eat this one up.

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