Hit The Lights - Skip School, Start Fights
Record Label: Triple Crown
Release Date: July 8, 2008
It seems as if nowadays, in the pop-punk genre, there is surefire way to make it big: Look cute, wear "cool clothes," and whine about your latest breakup. In my opinion, these are qualities of generic pop-punk. However, there is no rule that states that generic pop-punk can't be good. Hit The Lights proves this on its sophomore LP. Led by former guitarist and current lead singer Nick Thompson, Hit The Lights get up in your face with raw, guitar led songs about partying hard... and occasionally "the girl."
The album starts off on forgettable note with "Count In!" and "Breathe In." Unlike most of the record, I don't find myself humming the vocals to these two songs during math class. However "Stay Out" captures the catchy nature of the album with fun, youthful lyrics about late night partying. Next, "Drop the Girl" is probably the best song on the record. It took me a quite a few listens to realize that Shane Henderson of Valencia is featured in the middle of the song. The album continues to stay strong on the next track "Tell Me Where You Are" (a song about "the girl"). After this point I find that the only songs worth mentioning are "Back Breaker" and "Say What You Wanna Say." The main reason for this is that many of the songs sound very similar to one another. It is also important to re-state that none of the aforementioned songs are very lyrically sophisticated, just fun, catchy pop-punk.
All in all, good production and catchy choruses allow Hit The Lights' sophomore release to be a major step up from their mediocre debut, but still lacks the creativity and depth needed to stand out from the rest of the scene.
I don't particularly understand how anyone can say Colin is a better vocalist than Nick. It actually boggles my mind that Nick, with the voice he has, was in the band when Colin was around, and somehow was not their lead singer. Don't get me wrong, I like Murder as much as the next guy, but vocal-wise, Nick blows Colin out of the water, and it isn't even close, at least in my humble opinion.
I don't particularly understand how anyone can say Colin is a better vocalist than Nick. It actually boggles my mind that Nick, with the voice he has, was in the band when Colin was around, and somehow was not their lead singer. Don't get me wrong, I like Murder as much as the next guy, but vocal-wise, Nick blows Colin out of the water, and it isn't even close, at least in my humble opinion.
agreed
i also kind of like count it as an intro and then the guitar intro for breath in
this is a shitty review man, you barely scratched the surface of the album...made a few uninspired comments and called it good...work a little harder?
He wrote an average review for an album he thought was just average. You want him to write another 3 paragraphs filled with how mediocre the album is? Sheesh.
I don't particularly understand how anyone can say Colin is a better vocalist than Nick. It actually boggles my mind that Nick, with the voice he has, was in the band when Colin was around, and somehow was not their lead singer. Don't get me wrong, I like Murder as much as the next guy, but vocal-wise, Nick blows Colin out of the water, and it isn't even close, at least in my humble opinion.
Skip School, Start Fights, in my honest opinion, starts off fairly strong. Beginning with the simple introduction which leads into Breathe In, which almost sets the pace for the album too strong, especially when followed by Stay Out and Drop the Girl, because it somewhat tapers off. I've described this album to anyone and everyone as solid, but in my experience, very few of the tracks stand out except for the opening three. I can definitely listen to this album as a whole and enjoy it, but I do agree that this is a fairly mediocre album. I don't like your review, you don't do the album justice in the lack of depth of it and I just felt like you were trying too little with this.
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