You Me At Six – Take Off Your Colours

You Me at Six’s Epitaph debut gave me instant déjà vu. I felt as though I had written this review countless times before.  This British quintet subscribes to that rehashed genre of American power-pop you’ve heard over, and over and over again. They’re a faceless Fall Out Boy clone with unremarkable hooks and a blandly safe sound.  I hadn’t known this style had taken off over in the UK, but after hearing Take Off Your Colours I fear for the British underground.

What can I say; it’s not that Take Off Your Colours is offensive to the ears, rather, it just kind of passes the listener by without leaving as much as an impression.  Every track tries being a radio single but falls flat.  The whole affair feels so bland I could barely even single out tracks for this review.  “Finders Keepers” stands out with a few uncharacteristically memorable hooks, but it’s a rarity amongst Take Off Your Colours otherwise lifeless spread.  The most I can say is that towards the back half of the album there are a few slow ballads like “Always Attract” where a whole lot of nothing happens except vocalist Josh Franceschi plucking away at his guitar, moaning about generic relationship woes.  Oddly, the track features guest vocals by his sister, making it one of the more memorable tracks by virtue of female vocals.  But considering that the duet is a dialogue between broken hearted lovers, it’s also a little creepy – in an incestuous way.

Epitaph has bloated Take Off Your Colours with an extra five bonus tracks, bringing the track total to nineteen and run time to nearly seventy minutes.  The bonus tracks are entirely unnecessary and make the album run beyond any reasonable single listening session.  The first three bonus tracks are a simple continuation of the original tracks, with “Sweet Feet,” “All your Fault,” and “Blue Eyes Don’t Lie” simply blurring into the backdrop.  The two acoustic tracks, including a stripped down version of “Finders Keepers,” just feel like overkill.  In case you weren’t bored enough with these tracks the first time, you now have the opportunity to hear them again.  Oh Joy.

Ironically, during the album opener, “The Truth is a Terrible Thing,” Franceschi sings “don’t waste your time, you’ve heard it all before.”  I couldn’t have said it better myself.