Scenes From A Movie – The Pulse

I don’t know exactly what it was, but I groaned when I saw The Pulse. I didn’t want to hear it, I had no interest in it and instinctively thought it would be horrible emo scrapped from the bottom of the barrel. Maybe it was because it was released on East West, a label that has had a less than stellar output as of late. Maybe it was because of the painfully stupid band name – Scenes From A Movie is almost as bad as Red Jumpsuit Apparatus as far as names go. Maybe it was just the general feel that I got from looking at the disc; whatever it was, I wasn’t looking forward to hearing it. So you can guess my surprise when I finally played it and realized “hey, this isn’t half bad.”

While severely lacking in originality, Scenes From A Movie do what they do very well as the follow in the footsteps paved by Fueled By Ramen Records. Yes, I’m talking about Panic! At The Disco andFall Out Boy. But luckily for us, The Pulse sounds much more akin to Take This To Your Grave era Fall Out Boy as opposed to the newer releases – and that is a good thing because Take This To Your Grave was actually good. It was, after all, way before Pete Wentz went all weird on us.

With vocals that bare a striking resemblance to Patrick Stump and very capable musicianship to boot, The Pulse is an upbeat, energetic pop-punk release with catchy hooks and infectious melodies. The album is very slick, and it being produced by two separate producers didn’t effect the flow of the album at all. However, the few tracks produced by Mike Green (Paramore, The Matches) do tend to stand out a bit more than the others – especially Heartbreak from Hell and If I Die, the two highlights of The Pulse.

That doesn’t mean the other tracks are forgettable, they do actually have some endearing element to most of the songs. Save You sounds like The Patron Saints of Liars and Fakes and sees vocalist Tony Bush spitting out the lyrics in the same quick manner of Brendan Urie and Patrick Stump. Detective, Detective slows down and picks up pace like This Ain’t A Scene and The Cover-Up, while starting with an acoustic guitar, breaks into an energetic and incredibly catchy song with a chorus (It’s not about the crime but the cover-up / so i’ll keep the covers up to my necks with my eyes shut) that gets immediately stuck in your head.

So yes, my initial reactions were kinda of right – Scenes From A Movie are somewhat generic. Despite that though, this album is better than most and I actually enjoy it. What they lack in originality they make up for in intensity and energy, something which most bands seem to throw to the wayside way too soon. It’s not watered down and will please most fans of the genre.