Sound The Alarm – Stay Inside

Sound The Alarm – Stay Inside / 2007 Geffen / 12 Tracks / http://www.soundthealarmmusic.com / http://www.geffen.com /

Even though the members of Sound the Alarm are young (they are in their twenties), the band has been around for quite a few years. The act formed when the members were still pre-teens; since then, they have been tearing shit up in Pennsylvania. With their album “Stay Inside”, released this year on Geffen Records, it will be only a matter of time before they tear shit up around the world. “Stay Inside” starts out with “Closer”, a track that has a pop-punk catchiness mixed in equal amounts with a hard rock instrumentation. What ultimately results with “Closer” is a track that is similar to the work of a Yellowcard.

This is not the same as “Picture Perfect”, which has a decidedly late nineties sound present in both the vocal and instrumental sections of the track. The same radio friendliness and catchy harmonies are present in “Closer”. The band reaches a high point with their “Suffocating”, which has a memorable chorus with an instrumental wall of sound that will impress anyone that has the good fortune of listening to the band. Sound The Alarm goes back to their late nineties sound with “Stay Inside”. “Stay Inside” is a track that matches well with Third Eye Blind’s “Jumper”, and only varies slightly from that song in that the arrangements of Sound The Alarm during that track are more contemporary than those of TEB. Regardless of the style used by the band, all tracks on “Stay Inside” could easily make it onto rock radio. There is an openness to Sound The Alarm that will endear the band to all listeners.

The only thing that could be construed as a weakness during “Stay Inside” would have to be the fact that the arrangements on each of the twelve cuts are fairly simple. The band is able to create quite different sounds with these arrangements, but the band should look towards arrangements with greater complexity for subsequent albums. If the band is able to make albums of this quality for five or ten more years, I could see them easily taking the place of a Goo Goo Dolls (albeit with a little bit more rock influence). The members of the band are young enough that it would not be too surprising to see them alive and kicking as Sound The Alarm for another twenty years. Give this pop-rock band a good, long listen and see if “Stay Inside” would do well in your CD changer.

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Rating: 6.8/10