Posted on: January 3, 2009 Posted by: Jay NeuFutur Comments: 0

It’s been a few years since Alien Ant Farm last cut a new album. A number of different musical revolutions have happened in the meantime. Will Alien Ant Farm move toward Fall Out Boy, or still go with the same style that was cultivated during tracks like “Movies”. “Bad Morning” is a track that comes out with a harder version of Alien Ant Farm than I remember; the band has seemed to grab a little bit onto the style of acts like New Found Glory and ran with it. This hard style does not lose any ground during “Forgive & Forget”.

The only thing that can be said about Alien Ant Farm at this point is that the distorted guitars seem a little plastic; if the guitar was allowed to shine a little more than it does on the track, the results would be a little bit stronger than they are. By the time that “What I Feel Is Mine” gets into its own groove, Alien Ant Farm seemed to have dropped any punk pretense and moved into the harder groove of acts like Three Days Grace. The style is something that is quite in demand in the new rock stations as of 2006, and provides essentially the only alternative to the Fall Out Boy-like rock mentioned earlier. The struggle between the vocals and drums during “It Could Happen” keeps the disc interesting, while the vocals (which eventually win out) push the band to new realms. With a cowbell that is reminiscent of “Don’t Fear The Ripper”, “Around The Block” seems to set the stage for Alien Ant Farm’s restoration to the heights of rock radio.

This track looks back to “Movies” and all of the band’s other tracks, while throwing in some of the newfound rock that has fueled the band during this disc. It is rare that a band could commit fourteen tracks to disc and not have anything in the way of chaff. Most acts are only goof for en to twelve songs on their albums, while Alien Ant Farm are mature enough at this point in their careers that they can actually bring fourteen disc-worthy tracks to this disc. “Up In The Attic” may not have the immediate hits that AAF’s previous albums have had, but at the suspense of that, a much more solid disc will floor listeners through all 55 minutes of its runtime.

Top Tracks: Around The Block, San Sebastian

Rating: 7.0/10

[JMcQ]

Alien Ant Farm – Up In The Attic / 2006 Universal / 14 Tracks / http://www.alienantfarm.com / http://www.universalchronicles.com /

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