Deservedly Hard On The Trail Of Success
Rydell are here with their third full-length album and, for once, it opens with a style of punk that I actually scarily enjoy. The 11 tracks here are all packed with the tuneful-Sex-Pistols-yelp of Miles Booker, which aggressively, yet emotively, dances around the the dual guitar work-fueled melodies inherent in every song.
Considering the lyrics of the songs, Rydell seem to rely on a small amount of words, coupled with a lot of repetition. For instance, "Darkness Before Home", whilst lasting over three minutes, only has 8 lines to its name, and repeats them all at least three times. Not that this is bad - I've never been much of a lyrics listener, anyway, but judge for yourself.
The drumming in most of the songs provides a thought-provoking rhythm, rarely relying on simply using one constant beat for the entire song - it leaps around like a monkey and keeps you on your toes, which is good, I assure you.
Miles Booker's vocals are really powerful, although his tendency to shout may put many off, whilst others might not enjoy his husky untrained singing voice. Despite these flaws, this is seriously one of the finest examples of emo bands. Similar to Joshua, it's nice to see a band present "emo" music without the downtuned guitars and explosive riffs. It's always nice to have a change from the normal, and Rydell provide music that is both loud yet quiet - the music is powerful yet doesn't entirely dominate your ears, which can become annoying.
The real standout tracks come towards the middle of the album, mainly as the album swings into the second half. Such examples are 'Analysis of the Evidence' and 'Fire at the End of the Street', the second song providing a strange kind of script though its vocals: "first boy to the second boy: 'where do you think I am? how do you think it's gone tonight?" This is generally the quieter side of the album, where the punk-elements of the band are removed, and the juicy talent is exposed for your listening pleasure.
Providing a very un-Rydell heavy-emo cover of "Boys of Summer" by Don Henley for the final song, Rydell finish with a bang and justify their fanbase. This CD would have scored far higher if it weren't for the punk-style tracks at the beginning of the album, which weaken the LP as a whole; the first few tracks aren't bad, but they pale in comparison to what appears as you continue to listen.