32 Leaves – Welcome To The Fall

Have you ever put on a brand new CD and been suddenly hit with a realization of “hey, I’ve heard this before!” But then you realize that no, you haven’t heard it before.It just sounds exactly like a million other CDs you have in your collection or a million other songs you’ve heard on the radio. If you have, then you’ll know what to expect when you first put in 32 Leaves‘s Welcome To The Fall; and if you haven’t, well you’ll son find out what that feeling feels like.

Welcome To The Fall, the debut album from Phoenix, Arizona’s 32 Leaves, is your classic generic rock album. The twelve track album flows by without having any impact on the listener at all. The songs blend into one another without any separation or difference. They all sound the same and have nothing to distinguish themselves with. Everything seems over produced and way too slick to feel real or likeable. The vocals come at you at a drone without any harmony, catchiness or memorable quality; they tend to make the listener rather sleepy.

The album could be the same album created by any of the mainstream rock stars today, but not the mainstream rock stars that stay around for a while. They are more of the one album wonder kind, a band that will have a few hit singles and then fade into obscurity. Think of Theory Of A Deadman (who’s had more then a one album wonder, but you know) or A Perfect Circle. They have a few good hits, but nothing to keep them going in the long run.

Now, all this isn’t to say its an absolutely horrible CD. It just is kind of boring. It seems to be the same thing over and over again and isn’t too memorable. Welcome To The Fall is just a generic, slick, over produced, rock album.