You The Symphony - Empty Room Philosophies

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RIYL

Mutemath
As Tall as Lions
Taproot

Release Date

09/14/2010

Label

Unsigned

Tracklist

01. Disarm
02. What We Used to Be
03. Invisible
04. Sailing
05. I Wish You Would've Believed Me
06. Walls

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Sometimes I wish that bands could be judged solely on intentions. In the case of the Pittsburgh quintet You The Symphony, these guys really do seem to mean well with their upbeat attitudes and positive statements about the purpose of music as a communal art form. Unfortunately, the band’s sophomore EP Empty Room Philosophies offers 25 minutes of bland, unoriginal material that demands as little from the listener as it seems to from the musicians themselves.

“If a picture’s worth a thousand words, your face is worth a million more, I should have known, it wasn’t her, it wasn’t me, it was all the things we were supposed to be, it’s time to go.” The EP is full of generic and cringe-worthy lyrics like these, bringing to mind the lyrical stylings of Linkin Park. No moment necessarily stands out from any other apart from the sudden introduction of keys on the opener “Disarm,” but keys have become so commonplace these days that the effect is shortly lost. The remainder of the album is a mish-mash of all the common tropes of current rock music, sounding like castaway pieces left on the cutting room floor by better bands.

Not much more can be said about this entirely down-the-middle release other than if You The Symphony want to reach a new audience of music-loving intellectuals outside their hometown, they’re going to have to try a lot harder than this.

--Jeff VanVickle

Last updated: 10/05/2010 07:21AM

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