The Beautiful Mistake – This Is Who You Are

The Beautiful Mistake are back with their sophomore album, This Is Who You Are. They have a lot of pressure on them to make a good follow up to 2002’s critically acclaimed debut, Light A Match, For I Deserve To Burn. Are they able to live past that pressure and create a great album? In some ways yes, in others, no.

The ten track album never really does any wild experiments. What you find in one song, you’ll most likely find in the next, and the one afterwards too. They are full of distorted guitars, rhythmic drumming, captivating bass melodies and a wide range of vocals. Josh Hagquist, the lead singer, can change from melodic, smooth singing to powerful screams with ease and precision. Unfortunately, even though they do have that wide range of sound, the vocals rarely are able to really captivate you and absorb you. Every once in a while you’ll find a section like that, but its rare. The best vocal sections are when Jon Berndtsonand Shawn Grover add their sounds to the mix, adding a second and third layer to the mixture makes it deeper and more attracting. Able to have dueling vocals with two, and sometimes three different people is almost always a plus. The instrumental portions aren’t anything new either, they are the same type you’d find in a Further Seems Forever song. That’s not bad, but it would be better to mix it up a bit, rather then have it sound like one really long song.

Overall, This Is Who You Are is an average melodic rock album. There’s nothing spectacular about it, but nothing too disappointing. The vocals are good, but could be a bit more powerful; the song structure is catchy, but could be varied a bit; the lyrics are intelligent, but could be catchier; whatever you look at, there’s a plus and a minus to it.