So They Say – Life in Surveillance

My bus ride to school in the mornings is approximately thirty minutes long. More often that not I use those thirty minutes to great advantage, by which I mean I simply pass out and sleep the entire ride. However, some days I find some reasons to stay awake for the trip. Sometimes it will be because a friend is also riding the bus so I have someone to talk to, other times it’s the fact that I need to read something before school starts and other times I stay awake so I can just zone out and listen to some great (or not so great) tunes. Yesterday was one of those days. I decided it was time I sat and listened to So They Say‘s sophomore album front and back, something I had been putting off for around a week. So I hopped on the bus and turned on my iPod and listened to Life In Surveillance for a while. It didn’t really grab me, but it wasn’t horrible either and my initial trepidations concerning the releases weren’t as strong as they were previously. Then the funniest thing happened, I was woken up by the buzzing of someone requesting a stop.

Turns out I couldn’t quite make it all the way through the album without, literally, falling asleep.

Now, I realized this was a slightly bias result. I mean, it was early in the morning and I was tired and just sitting there doing nothing, so the album can’t be the only thing held responsible for my little nap. Nevertheless, it couldn’t keep me awake either; and that says something too.

You see, Life In Surveillance is exactly what you’d expect from So They Say as the record contains absolutely no surprises. It’s a flawlessly produced conglomeration of post-hardcore, pop-punk and modern emo (I’ve heard the band been described as all three). Suffice to say, So They Say aren’t striving for anything ground breaking with the release but are instead treading softly in already worn out territory. The vocals are pitch perfect, making them rather bland and forgettable as they melt into the mixture of keyboards, guitars and bass. At times they’re able to elevate themselves to new heights and bring in a slight punch in the vocals (Close Range and Wake Me Up being prime examples), but for the most part they’re simply meh.

It’s like a mixture of Armor For Sleep, The Spill Canvas, and Hidden In Plain View with some Classic Case, Silverstein, National Product and Royden thrown in too. It makes for an album that is a tad better than a lot of the releases being spat out these past few years; but it also fails to strike any chord with the listener and it will be thrown to the pack of your CD pile within the first few weeks of getting it. It’s just a generic modern emo/post-hardcore output and while it has a few moments that aren’t completely bland, there’s not many.

So how would I describe the album? I’d say meh. M-E-H. Meh.