FYI – A Full Year Story

I’ve been listening to A Full Year Story for a few weeks now, trying to wrap my mind around it and find a way to let the album sink in. Unfortunately, no matter how many times I listen to it, I just can’t get into the album; and I always seem to be glad when it comes to an end. Because no matter how I wrap my brain around it, A Full Year Story is just your ultra generic, ultra polished, radio-friendly pop-punk EP.

Musically, the band is very adept. They’re tight, well organized and everything is mixed appropriately. At times they can be a tad too produced and too polished; and, ultimately, they can be a tad predictable. Nonetheless, the musicianship on A Full Year Story isn’t bad – it’s not inventive or new, but it is very competent. But what I can’t seem to get over is the vocals from front man Kevin McGowan. He can’t seem to figure out what he wants to do with his voice. At times he’ll break into a mini rap ala Zebrahead style, but that only lasts for a few words before he smoothes out and goes into the pop-punk style of singing with overly boyish vocals that become slightly irritating a bit. His speed goes up and down without much control as he seems to be looking for the right delivery style. But that I can accept, that I can handle; it’s in the moments where he reaches out for a high note and tries to elongate a word which results in his voice just basically cracking that I can’t handle. He can never reach that elusive high note, but he tries so many times and every time he tries and falls short your ears cringe a little.

FYI is just your typical generic pop-punk band, but they don’t have any memorable quality to them – and their singer becomes annoying pretty fast. There’s a few shimmering moments of hope, but most are buried in a hurry. Despite all of that, the most annoying feature of this album is the 7 minute pause of a woman mumbling something softly in the background after the final track, Into The Outer Space. You wait all that time which leads into a minute long recording of some guy trying to audition as a lead singer. It’s supposed to be funny, but it’s not. Instead it’s painful and embarrassing and you can’t help but feel that you just waited 8 minutes of your life after you had just wasted twenty minutes on an EP with only a few redeeming qualities to it.