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Death in the Park - Death in the Park

Rating

RIYL

Paramore
Hot Rod Circuit
Anberlin

Release Date

08/24/2010

Label

End Sounds Records

Tracklist

1. Pitifully Exposed
2. Fallen - Featuring Hayley Williams
3. Do You Want Me Now
4. Laws of Nature
5. Move To The Beat
6. The Run Around
7. Sway
8. How Much Is Too Much
9. Oh You Know
10. Walk Away

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Recent Ratings
benny06

Hot Rod Circuit were one of those bands that for some reason never really made it to the next level. They watched peers like Jimmy Eat World and Dashboard Confessional hit critical and commercial success while they stayed at the same liminal state for their entire duration. Despite this, singer Andy Jackson proved himself to be a top-tier songwriter with albums like Sorry About Tomorrow and The Underground Is a Dying Breed, which those in the know claim to be under-appreciated early 2000s emo-pop masterpieces. With Death in the Park’s self-titled debut full-length, Jackson is still trying to prove himself as a man who knows his way around a great emo-pop-rock song.

While the bio on their label’s website claims that their sound is hard to pinpoint, the short version is that they sound like a mixture of the scrappy, heart-on-sleeve pop-punk of Hot Rod Circuit and a heavy dose of the barely-emo influenced sensitive-but-loud radio ready rock of Paramore. This combination works well most of the time, and there is a lot to like about Death In the Park’s sound. The instrumentation, the guitars in particular, are solid and well written. While they don’t do anything incredibly surprising or groundbreaking, the leads are melodic and tasteful, and the layering is near perfect in its complimentary subtlety. The three-part guitar harmony lead in “How Much Is Too Much” and the not-technically-impressive-but-melodically-perfect solo in “Do You Want Me Now” are highlights in an album filled with awesome and subtle guitar work.

The band’s use of constantly shifting rhythmic dynamics are, once again, not groundbreaking or frenetic, but incredibly well done. Tracks rarely stay with the same beat for very long, but it’s never gratuitous and keeps structurally simple songs fresh and exciting. The most familiar highlight would be Andy Jackson’s voice, reminiscent of everything from The Starting Line’s sappy-but-awesome adolescence to Fall Out Boy’s high pitched soul and Paramore’s constant “whoa-oh”s. He is nasal and sometimes whiny, but it is so earnest and heartfelt that you can’t help but love it. The melodies and harmonies are often constructed so that he sometimes reaches beyond his range and cracks, and while these are technically imperfect, they fit the songs well and provide a great range of emotion. Their choruses are never that catchy, but stay embedded in your head because of the efforts of their phenomenal singer.

But not all is rosy in post-Hot Rod Circuit land. While the songs are solid, an entire album’s worth of extremely similar songs causes everything to blend together. While there aren’t any blatantly weak spots, there also aren’t any songs that are catchy or proficient enough to be far and away the best on the album. The obligatory acoustic song “Oh You Know” has some interesting accompaniment, but ultimately feels tacked on. Lastly, and probably most damning, is that sometimes things get really cheesy. While Death in the Park’s bio says Andy Jackson considers these the best lyrics he’s ever written, they don’t seem much past high school level. All the songs are about personal relationships, which is fine, but lyrics like, “I love your smile, your scent, how you smell like peppermint… you hold my heart, watch me salivate, watch me fall apart,” are cringe worthy, and they pop up periodically all over the album. The “ooo-ooo” lead on the intro to “Fallen” (featuring Haley Williams) tries its best to be energetic and fun, but with Jackson’s nasal voice, they sound like he has accidentally stepped in dog poop or something similarly gross.

All in all, this is a pretty good album. There isn’t anything particularly mind-blowing, and it certainly isn’t an instant classic, but it is solid, energetic and fun. Andy Jackson crafts some very artfully layered and honest pop rock, and they are miles ahead of most Paramore imitators. Being slightly above average probably wasn’t the aim on Death in the Park’s self-titled album, but their tendency to cheese it up and play it safe keeps it from being anything more that.

--Stephen Harris