Posted on: September 3, 2008 Posted by: James McQuiston Comments: 0

Genre-wise I feel like Motion Picture Demise is kind of all over the board. “Zip. Boom. Hah.” leaves me feeling a little lost as to a genre to tag on them. Mostly, their music is a solid time investment; I think all can find at least one song on here that touches on their style of choice. My largest criticism is to cut the song length down a bit, by the end of the tracks I am way more than ready for the next one. It was only 7 tracks but I felt as though I was listening to a full length.

The lyrics were hard hitting at times and played up well by the vibe of the music. My favorite line off the whole album can be found in “Causin’ a Stir”. “She’s got it all and I’ve got her.” The song also has an interesting break that sounds like very organized, crisp chaos. The next track “The Way it Goes” features an interesting display of cymbals used as the spine of the music as support through the verses. It works nice to display how the guitar hits the counts tightly and perfectly. The track also shows some neat vocal distortion. Track 3 is the only place where screaming is used, and it is actually ON the word scream, so props for tasteful use.

“Fail With Me” (ironically, the longest song on the album) is my favorite off the entire work, hands down. It is the song that fits my taste as none of the rest of them did. I loved it from the opening that used keys that were not overdone at all to draw me in. And it kept me going to the awesome dual vocals toward the ending. On the very opposite end of the spectrum, I didn’t find any interest in the very next track entitled “Inhuman Touch” (once again ironically, the shortest song on the album). It reminds me of an 80s jam, kind of scattered and no focus. The chanting came of pretty cheesy to me. Then again, maybe it just wasn’t my cup of tea. The acoustics of “Innocent” had me interested immediately, and the soft vocals kept my attention. I felt the channeling of Oasis, a band I can always appreciate. But the very title of the song became an overly repetitive element of the song. The album closes with a darker song, featuring minor chords, troubled vocals and muddled guitar. “The Comfortable Divide” is a nice effort of redemption, but too little too late. I feel a bit bored by the end of the album and found no aspects to cling to.

Top Tracks: Fail With Me, Innocent

Rating: 4.8/10

Motion Picture Demise – Zip.Boom.Hah. / 2006 Orange Peal / 7 Tracks / http://www.motionpicturedemise.com / http://www.orangepeal.com / Reviewed 13 June 2007

[Charlie]

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