Ohio Avenue – The Sound

Deceptively titled Alabama trio Ohio Avenue have been around since 2005, but are finally just releasing their first full length.  The album, titled The Sound, serves as a follow-up to 2007’s debut EP, and finds frontman Derek Williams serving as primary writer and even producer.  Fitting somewhere in the realm of soft-spoken electro-rock with pop sensibilities, many tracks could be plucked ripe for mainstream airplay.  But while I don’t typically have an ear for this brand of radio rock, there’s no denying that Ohio Avenue plays with a tight sense of chemistry.

For a mainstream rock group, nothing on The Sound feels terribly forced, but at the same time, in seeking mainstream appeal the band seems to have played it safe, meaning that there isn’t much in terms of creativity here either.

The album starts on a particularly energetic note with “Catch Me,” a four minute anthem complete with well integrated techno blasts, soaring synth bars, and a prominent lead guitar serving as a reminder of the band’s core mechanics.  It’s an exemplary track with a chorus that will likely hook radio listeners – even if it felt a little like business like usual on my end.  The next two tracks, “Liar, Liar” and “Running Away,” feel like a combination of pop/rock groups like Fall Out Boy and I Hate Hate.  Williams in particular gives off an obnoxious Patrick Stump vibe during the chorus as he escalates into cries of liar, liar, you’ve got that blank stare in your eye again, you’re quite the mendicant, but you never hide behind that classic little smile.

Unfortunately though, after about the third track the albums starts losing that essential energy.  What we’re left with are ho-hum piano-led love ballads (“Show Me”), and examples of generic mid-tempo radio rock (“Shine Through”).  To compound matters, as the tempo scales back the lyrics suddenly find the spotlight.  Unfortunately, the lyrics are far less interesting than the instrumentation, and often come across as faceless calls to an unspecified receiver.  They’re the type of passages typically found when Christian rock groups try appealing to a mass audience by referring to God with an intentional vagueness.  Examples include passages such as those found in “Show Me:” if you know where I am, what to do, if you’ve got a plan would you show me, as found in “Show Me;” and like those in “The Cure,” reading: I am drowning in a sea of my mistakes, who can rescue me… but you can take my blame… you are the cure that stops my blame… you are everything that I ever needed.  Even assuming that the band has Christian overtones (there is no official statement, but a quick internet search seems to point in that direction), I can’t help but feel these lines have all been written before – and in far more engaging ways.

In the end Ohio Avenue provides a competent, albeit at times forgettable, full-length debut featuring a handful of ready-for-radio hits.  Tracks like “Catch Me” and “Liar, Liar” have the potential to propel the group into the realm of mainstream radio, and more importantly into the memory of unexpected listeners.  With such a reasonable foundation then, it’s a shame that the rest of The Sound feels so generic.