Gatsby’s American Dream – S/T (CD)

The disc starts off in an odd way with “You All Everybody”. There are different timer signatures in play in the early stages for Gatsby’s American Dream, even though they settle down and create something that blends in equal parts early nineties rock and a more current conception of emo music. The band has grabbed onto the same dance-emo aspirations as bands like Fall Out Boy and to a lesser extend HelloGoodbye. It actually sounds more as if during “We Can Remember If You For You Wholesale” that the band has taken to heart the earlier effort of acts like The Rapture. “Wholesale” shows that Gatsby’s American Dream is still trying to get on the horse and ride.

There are somewhat catchy choruses, but the band just does not start catching on all cylinders for the first few tracks of this album. “Badd Beat” is a track that has a much slower tempo than any other track, but comes back into something quicker soon after. The vocal style just seems incongruous with the music that is laid down during these tracks. Blends of earlier and later emo square off during this track, which again show the band’s major issue on this disc.

The band simply has too much in the way of influences bouncing all around their heads; if the band coalesces the styles a little more, the disc would be much more cohesive. In a sense, though, there is a sort of cohesion shown with all of the tracks on this album. This is shown by the eclectic nature of the track; while the band struggles to create a product that is acceptable to both bands and fans, there is little claim that individuals can make that the band has a wide scattershot. Each of the constituent parts on this album works well, it just feels as if the band’s arrangement styles are not necessarily the strongest. The band’s consistent use of profanity in these tracks feels excessive; there are many good places for profanity to be used, but when “fuck” is just being used to give a rockstar style to the band, the effect of the word is lessened. This album show that what Gatsby’s American Dream is is currently up in debate; hopefully by the time that the enxt album comes out, the band will have a much better idea what they should sound like and what they want to commit to disc.

Top Tracks: Margaritas and Cock, Filthy Beasts

Rating: 4.5/10

[JMcQ]

Gatsby’s American Dream – S/T / 2006 Fearless / 11 Tracks / http://www.gatsbysamericandream.com / http://www.fearlessrecords.com / Reviewed 16 August 2006