Between The Trees – The Story & The Song

Last year a new band broke out by the name of Red Jumpsuit Apparatus. As you can see in my review for their record, I like the album but found it to be very generic and thought they had entered into the scene too late to really make a splash and become a fighting force. Boy, was I wrong. Thanks to the hit single Hands Down, The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus blew up instantly and everyone knew who they were and was shouting their praise. I believe that Bonded Records is trying to follow in the footsteps left by the aforementioned band with Between The Trees‘ debut album, The Story & The Song.

You see, everything The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus did, Between The Trees seem to be doing too. The musical structure is the same, with a polished sound rounded off by keyboards and synths and melodic, “emo” vocals floating on top – kind of like the new crop of Tooth & Nail acts (especially since this is another Christian band too). On top of sounding the very similar to RJA, they’re also playing the “socially conscious” single card with their first single, The Way She Feels, being an anti-suicide song benefiting To Write Love On Her Arms (which, don’t get me wrong, is all well and good, but just adds yet another thing that the two bands have in common). The biggest difference between the two bands is the fact that there isn’t as much diversity amongst the songs on The Story & The Songs as there is on Don’t Fake It – ignoring the abnormal closer, You Cry A Tear To Start A River, which sounds remarkably like The Format and is a rather large curve ball to end the album with; although there’s still enough of a change between the individual songs so that the album isn’t overly repetitive.

But while the sound is too bad, I can’t help but feel – once again – that the sound is completely overdone and that they are jumping into the scene a little too late in the game. We already have The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, Anberlin, Acceptance and more. On top of that, the lyrics seem to be really hit and miss. While at times they can be quite passionate and work well, “Sticks and stones may break my bones, your words they surely kill“? Well, that’s just plain laughable. “And darlin’ if you’re wondering, here’s your answer, yes I like you, I don’t love you, I can’t love you“? That’s not much better either; and there seems to be that cheese factor throughout as they follow cliches and predictable patterns in every song. Although, that predictabilty does make it catchy very quickly.

There’s no denying that Between The Trees will blow up instantly if The Way She Feels gets the right radio air play, but I can’t help but feel they’re just riding the wave of what’s popular. While yes, it’s slightly better than a lot of the perfectly polished emo-rock that gets produced these days, it’s still nothing new. It’s nothing creative or innovative, just the same thing regurgitated over and over again. But that’s just one reviewer’s opinion and there’s a legion of MTV teeny boppers who will disagree.