Secondhand Serenade – A Twist In My Story

I’m a subscriber to Alternative Press magazine. While I rarely ever sit down and read the whole thing, there’s always a few sections that I read every time the magazine arrives in my mail box and if I can find them amongst the mass amounts of advertising they normally end up being quite interesting reads. My favourite column is Steven’s Untitled Rock Column, a column writen by the same guy who hosts Steven’s Untitled Rock Show on Fuse. Now, I’ve never seen the show and never will because I don’t get Fuse and have no inclination to change that (although that new NOFX documentary is tempting) so I don’t know what his show is like; but I do like his column. So much so that its become the first thing I read each month in Alternative Press. His most recent editorial focused on the “Good Enough” theory which stated that most music we listen to is “good enough” and not “great”. He says that with so many bands pumping out the same song over and over again, we settle for bands who are just good enough instead of really great and Secondhand Serenade is one of those bands.

A Twist In My Story is Secondhand Serenade‘s sophomore release and just like it’s predecessor it is once again “good enough.” It’s good enough to let you sit through without becoming bored or irate. It’s good enough to grab your attention and a few songs are actually impressive. The vocals are strong enough and John Vesely is a capable enough musician. It adds up for a relatively decent listen with the occasional glimmer of excellence but the instant the CD ends you’ve already forgotten all about it.

There’s nothing in the songs that makes them memorable. There’s nothing that makes them unique and the more you listen the more you see that. A Twist In My Story is just an elaborate attempt to be the next Dashboard Confessional with a little bit of The Spill Canvas thrown in. There’s a openly lush sound added to the ballads thanks to the addition of strings and pianos (see the title track for the best use of that) but the immaculately produced sound often nullifies the impact. It makes it so that the music seems more complete than Awake was but its still suffers from a lack of individuality or originality.

As it is, A Twist In My Story is the basic acoustic emo/rock balladry album. A few songs stand out, Why with the basic piano and acoustic guitar combination and Vesely’s falsetto voice and Your Call which builds in intensity and emotion are two of them but still nothing is able to last longer than the song themselves. The lyrics are all the product of a heartbroken teenage that repeats the same thing over and over again in an increasingly creepy manner as the lyrics, and the songs, fall into the same pattern once again.

Secondhand Serenade is just further proof for Stephen’s “good enough” theory because even though A Twist In My Story is a decent listen, there’s really nothing noteworthy about it.