My American Heart – The Meaning In Makeup

We waited seven hours by the sea, for the taste of ecstasy. In a lot filled with trails and trees, we swallowed them whole right down our bellies.

Ingenious isn’t it? Sadly, that’s the sort of trite that My American Heart‘s The Meaning In Makeup is full of. It’s not that it’s horrible, its just more along the lines of generic, flat and vague. How could someone not instantly fall in love with lyrics as insightful as “Yeah, this is it. Tonight we drive, tonight we fly like butterflies” (Today Is The Number Seventeen) or “I see the way you stare, so easy to love and fail, skies don’t bleed anymore” (In Between).

By now, most people would’ve already written the band off thanks to their generic emo lyrics, and really, they aren’t missing much. Because, like the lyrics, My American Heart is full of the generic, cookie cutter style of emo rock. Now that’s not to say its absolutely horrendous, far from it, it’s just that its the same songs and the same album we’ve heard a million times before; and after a while it just gets boring. The same regurgitated guitar riff, the same vocal harmony spat out over and over again, all topped off with the occasional scream to fit into the crowd. Not only do they follow every other burgeoning emo act in America, they even copy their own songs again and again – making it nearly impossible to decipher between the tracks. Add in the fact that they talk about the meaning in makeup on the two opening tracks, and you’re instantly reaching for the eject button.

There’s not enough ways to say “generic emo band” in the English language to truly explain The Meaning In Makeup, but hopefully you’ve gathered what it sounds like. It’s not the worst CD of the year, just not original enough to actually deserve some attention. Maybe you’ll love it, because I’m sure if it had came out a few years ago, it would’ve been held in high regards; sadly, now it’s the same CD as the one at your neighbor’s garage sale.