Strike.Fire.Fall – Still Life

I like the whole concept behind Takeover Records‘ Sign My Band contest. Everyone knows about it, everyone’s excited for it, and its a great promotion push for the ten finalists. But it also shows exactly what happens when a band wins it without ever having really taken their music that seriously beforehand. Because while their bio boasts that Strike.Fire.Fall. have over 200 dates scheduled in the upcoming months, they just had to drop off their biggest tour with Yellowcard and Mae due to “conflicts with the band.” Add the fact that they have a keyboard in every song but don’t have a full time keyboardist yet, and I bet its safe to say that Still Life will the first and last CD from the Philadelphia foursome, and personally, I can’t say I’m sad about that.

It’s not that the fourteen track album is bad, because it’s not, it’s just that it feels like a good seventeen or so tracks instead of the fourteen listed. It just drags on and on and on, the pop-punk songs blend into one another, and there’s never enough to differentiate themselves from the previous song. A few songs do stick out, like the energetic clap-along U-Turn or the opener Cadillac and the Yellowcard-esque Music & Spirits, but other than that, the songs are just blah. They split it up with Ken, a ten second telephone message from Ken at the takeover office, and really it is immense filler and serves no purpose – it isn’t even funny.

Musically, they sound like a million other bands out there, and it’s a pity because they are good at what they do, which is probably why so many people voted for them. Their singer is strong and has a wide range of pop-punk melodies, they have some good riffs and some unique melodies. But they don’t put that all together to make something unique and entertaining. Instead, they just gave you something forgettable that almost any band could throw out.

I can see why Strike.Fire.Fall. won the contest, because they do have a certain catchy quality to themselves, but I think they got a record deal before having enough writing experience to write a unique and memorable album. As it is, you’ll likely hear it once and forget about it right after.

EDIT:After writing this e-mail, I got a e-mail from lead singer Shawn Harrington which I’d like to add to this just so that it may clear up any misconceptions from the review, because there was some facts which I had wrong thanks to an incurrate press release. So anyway, here’s the message, do with it what you will: I appreciate you taking the time to review our CD. I just wanted to let you know that this “biggest tour” you refer to is probably not what you think. We were not playing on the same stage as Yellowcard and Mae, we were on a small side stage that played outside 4 hours before they went on. We played to an average of 5 kids a show. We had to drop off the tour because we were not receiving any guarantees and we couldn’t support ourselves with merch. There were no “conflicts within the band” and I am not sure who told you that or why.

Just wanted you to have the facts straight.
Thanks,
Shawn