Thank you, Miss Kissgoodnight!
Here we have another great offering from Engineer Records with the fantastic Pop/Punk-tastic band from Italy, Lightning Daze. Although we only get seven tracks on this the band’s debut album, it is enough to reel you in and bookmark them as a band to watch out for.
First track, ‘Spring Box’ is a catchy slice of Pop/Punk, and it’s the lead vocals from Dami Rock that give the band their distinctive sound, with his Italian-laced English accent it succeeds at both being pure Pop/Punk, but also letting you know that the band aren’t American. What we get is New Found Glory mixed with the likes of Allister. This leads on to, ‘Thank You Miss Kissgoodnight’ packed with melodic guitars and cool vocal hooks. ‘Another Perfect Night’ is catchy in a slow/mid-tempo Foo Fighters kind of way and whilst, ‘Oasis Of Green’ is a mellow and nice simple instrumental, it appears to serve as the intermission between a changing direction of the band’s songs from Pop/Punk to EMO influenced Punk.
Things then turn more thoughtful in the emotional slow-tempo song, ‘Better Days’, proving that whilst there are some good Pop/Punk songs here, there is more to the lyrics than the usual juvenile ditty’s that is synonymous with this genre. This therefore leads nicely to the slightly slow Emo track, ‘Fall’ whereby we have the lyrics of, “The leaves of memories // Are falling down from the tree of life // each one remembering // me the time you were mine…”, and then in the final song, ‘Strike Out’ the band nod their head slightly to Alkaline Trio with the dark lyrics, and deep chugging guitar riffs. The open line goes, “I can’t breath, so I write your name with my blood on the wall…”. The album finishes with an eerie voice spouting profound words over the sound of children playing. Interesting.
This is a great album, and whilst it may seem slightly odd that it feels like two EP’s joined together, it is hard to establish which version of the band is best. The former catchy Pop/Punk is more accessible, however I find that whilst you get into the album quickly, band’s like this have an album that becomes boring quickly, whereas with a more deeply led musical and lyrical sack of songs, you often can find something different with each listen, and this is something that you get with the second part of this album.
The bottom line is that this could be a debut album from a band still finding their feet (although they have release three EP’s since 2001), and therefore the next album could well be the one that will see them as a true breakthrough artist. That said this is a good solid album and well worth a listen.